Return to home1996 Jan 6, In
Gaza Yehiyeh Ayyash, a Hamas bomb-maker known as "the engineer" was
assassinated by an explosives-rigged cellular phone. The operation
was attributed to Israel.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)

1996 Feb 25, In separate
attacks 2 Palestinian suicide bombers blew up a bus in Jerusalem and
a soldiers hitchhiking post in the coastal city of Ashkelon. 23
Israelis were killed, as well as 2 Americans and a Palestinian. More
than 80 people were wounded. Hamas took responsibility.
(WSJ, 3/6/96, p. A-15)(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)

1996 Feb 26, An Arab American
drove a rental car into a Jerusalem bus stop and killed one Israeli
while wounded 23. The driver appeared to be acting on his own but
Hamas took responsibility.
(G&M, 7/31/97, p.A8)

1996 Feb, A military
cooperation agreement was signed between Israel and Turkey. The
agreement allows for joint military training, exchanges between
military academies and participation of observers in each otherís
exercises.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-10)

1996 Mar 3, Israel declared
all-out war on the militant group Hamas after a bus bomb in
Jerusalem killed 19 people, including the bomber, the third such
suicide attack in eight days.
(WSJ, 3/4/96, p. A-1)(AP, 3/3/01)

1996 Apr 18, A base at Qana,
Lebanon, manned by Fijian UNIFIL troops was shelled by Israel and
led to 75 (revised to 106) civilian deaths. A later UN investigation
found the remains of 15 Israeli shells that indicated a targeted
assault. Israel called the attack an "unfortunate mistake."
(WSJ, 4/19/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-8)(AP,
4/18/97)(AP, 7/26/06)

1996 Apr 22, After 11 days of
focusing on Hezbollah guerrillas, Israeli warplanes turned to a new
target in Lebanon, attacking the heavily fortified base of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
(AP, 4/22/97)

1996 Apr 25, US Sec. of State
Warren Christopher helped produce a cease-fire between Israel and
the Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon. In the ďApril Understanding"
Israel, Lebanon, France, Syria and the US agreed that Lebanese and
Israeli civilians would not be targeted in Hezbollahís drive to end
Israelís occupation.
(WSJ, 5/6/96, p.A-13)(SFC, 7/31/06, p.A7)

1996 Apr 26, After 16 days of
bloodshed, Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas pledged to end the worst
fighting in the Mideast in three years, agreeing to a US-brokered
truce.
(AP, 4/26/01)

1996 May 3, A preliminary UN
report says that Israel fired knowingly on a southern Lebanon UN
compound on April 18 after pro-Iranian guerrillas sought refuge in
the area.
(SFC, 5/4/96, p.A-8)

1996 May 5, Israel and the
Palestinians began the final stage of their peace talks in Taba,
Egypt.
(AP, 5/5/97)

1996 May 13, David Boim (17),
an American, was standing at a bus stop in the West Bank with fellow
yeshiva students when two Palestinian terrorists drove by in a car,
shot him in the head, and killed him. In 2004 a US court awarded his
parents $156 million against US-based Muslim activists. In 2007 a
federal appeals court overturned the judgement.
(www.danielpipes.org/article/334)(SFC, 12/29/07,
p.A3)

1996 May 17, Israeli troops
shot and arrested Hassan Salameh. He was accused of organizing 3
bombings this year that killed 43 and wounded 91. His family lived
in the Gaza Strip and claimed to have no idea of their sonís
activities.
(SFC, 5/21/96, p.A-11)

1996 May 29, Israelis voted for
the first time to choose a prime minister directly. The Natíl.
Religious Party went from 6 to 10 seats in parliament, the Shas, a
strictly Orthodox party of Sephardic Jews, also went from 6 to 10
seats. The United Torah Judaism, an ardently Orthodox party of
Ashkenazi Jews retained its 4 seats. Benjamin Netanyahu, Likud party
leader, won the Prime Ministership over Prime Minister Shimon Peres
in a very close election.
(WSJ, 5/24/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 5/30/96, p.A8)(AP,
5/29/01)

1996 May 31, Israeli warplanes
attacked a Hezbollah base in eastern Lebanon in retaliation for an
ambush that killed four Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/31/96, A16)

1996 Jun 9, This marks
Independence Day and this year marks the 3000th anniversary of
Jerusalem.
(SFC, 6/3/96, p.A19)

1996 Jun, Netanyahu promised
the Orthodox that his government would pass legislation affirming
that only Orthodox rabbis can perform conversions in Israel.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C2)

1996 Jun, Yaron Ungar, an
American citizen, and his Israeli wife, Efrat, were killed as they
drove home from a wedding in Israel. In 2003 a US federal judge
ruled the Palestinian militant group Hamas must pay more than $116
million for murdering two Jewish settlers near the West Bank seven
years ago. The lawsuit was filed in 2000 by David Strachman, a
Providence attorney designated by an Israeli court to manage their
estate.
(AP, 7/3/03)

1996 Jul 2, Israeli planes
rocketed a Palestinian guerrilla base in Lebanon. The base belonged
to the Palestinian National Liberation Organization, a pro-Syrian
group under Col. Abu Musa, that split from the Fatah movement of
Yasser Arafat in the 1980s.
(SFC, 7/3/96, p.C3)

1996 Jul 10, In a tough speech
to the US Congress laying out conditions for Mideast negotiations,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Syria and
the Palestinians stop terrorists from attacking Israel.
(AP, 7/10/97)

1996 Jul 15, 135,000 settlers
live in the West Bank and 5,000 live in Gaza. About 160,000 Israelis
live in east Jerusalem, captured from Jordan in 1967 and then
annexed. New settlements were being planned.
(SFC, 7/15/96, p.A10)

1996 Aug 27, Israeli police
tore down a youth center in Jerusalemís Old City saying that it was
illegally built with money from Arafatís Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 8/28/96, p.A8)

1996 Aug 27, Yair Rosenbloom
(1944-1996), songwriter and composer, died of cancer. He composed
the Song to Peace sung by Prime Minister Rabin just before his
assassination.
(SFC, 8/30/96, p.E5)

1996 Sep 25, Violence began in
Jerusalem when Israelis opened a tunnel along the west wall of the
old city in opposition to Palestinian sentiments. Seven Arabs were
killed. Resulting riots left 69 Palestinians dead along with 16
Israelis.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A10)(AP, 9/25/97)(Econ, 2/17/07,
p.48)

1996 Nov 1, Nahum Kurman, the
security chief of a Jewish settlement, was charged for killing
11-year-old Palestinian, Hilmi Shousha. Kurman claimed the boy fell
and banged his head. He was sentenced in 2001 to 6 months of
community service and a $17,000 fine.
(SFC, 11/2/96, p.C1)(SFC, 1/24/01, p.A13)

1996 Dec 11, A mother and son
were killed and 5 others wounded when Palestinian militants raked a
settlerís car with gunfire in the West Bank. The Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Damascus based faction that
opposed the PLOís peace with Israel was blamed. It was the 28th
anniversary of the PFLP.
(SFC, 12/12/96, p.C2)(SFC, 12/13/96,
p.B2)

1996 Dec 26, A top army
official said that the focus of military training in 1997 will be to
prepare for a possible war with Syria.
(WSJ, 12/27/96, p.A1)

1996 David Bankier (1947-2010),
prominent Israeli Holocaust scholar, authored "The Germans and the
Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism."
(AP, 2/28/10)

1996 The documentary film
ďFragments * Jerusalem," won the won a special prize at the
Jerusalem Intíl. Film Festival. It was made over 10 years by
director Ron Havilio.
(SFEC, 4/12/98, DB
p.55)(www.havilio.com/jerusalem/index.php)

1996 Ariel Sharon was named the
infrastructure minister in the Netanyahu government.
(SFC, 10/10/98, p.A8)

1996 Instant messaging was
created by the Israeli company Mirabilis.
(SSFC, 7/6/03, p.E3)

1997 Jan 1, An off-duty Israeli
soldier, Noam Friedman, with a history of mental problems opened
fire on a crowded vegetable market in Hebron, wounding 5 [7] people
and touching off a stone-throwing demonstration by angry
Palestinians.
(SFC, 1/1/97, p.A1)(AP, 1/1/98)

1997 Jan 7, The Hebron Protocol
or Hebron Agreement began and was concluded from January 15 to
January 17, 1997 between Israel, represented by PM Benjamin
Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),
represented by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, under the supervision of
US Secretary of State Warren Christopher, for redeployment of
Israeli military forces in Hebron. Palestinian authorities gained
control of 80% of Hebron.
(SFC, 12/4/08, p.A27)
1997 Jan 7, The Jerusalem Prize
for literature was awarded to Spanish author Jorge Semprun (b.1923).
His works include "The Long Voyage," "Literature for Life," and the
screenplays for the Costas Gavras films "Z" and "The Confession."
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.E3)

1997 Jan 9, A pair of pipe
bombs were exploded in Tel Aviv and 13 people were injured.
(SFC, 1/10/96, p.A14)

1997 Jan 14, The US mediated an
agreement was reached on Hebron. Palestinian police would be allowed
to carry limited-range weapons in buffer zones between them and
Jewish settlers. Israel committed to reopening a central road and
Palestinian market.
(USAT, 1/15/97, p.9A)(SFEC, 10/25/98, p.A17)

1997 Jan 16, Israeli soldiers
dismantled their military headquarters in Hebron, marking the
beginning of the end of Israel's 30-year-old rule in the West Bank
city. A 5th of the city where 500 militant settlers live will
maintain a force of some 2,500.
(SFC, 1/17/97, p.A12)(AP, 1/16/98)

1997 Jan 27, Israeli soldiers
removed 45 Bedouin families of the Jahalin Bedouin tribe from land
east of Jerusalem that they had occupied for decades due to the
expansion of the Maale Adumim Jewish settlement.
(SFC, 1/28/97, p.A8)

1997 Feb 23, PM Netanyahu
hired a lawyer as he faced charges of participating in a deal to
quash corruption charges against Aryeh Deri, the leader of the
religious Shas party, in order to get the partyís support for the
Hebron agreement.
(WSJ, 2/24/97, p.A1)(SFC, 2/25/97, p.a12)

1997 Mar 13, Jordanian soldier
Ahmed Daqamseh fired on Israeli junior high school girls on a field
trip to the Jordan River island known as Naharayim or Island of
Peace. Seven girls were killed and six injured. A Jordanian military
court deemed Daqamseh mentally unstable and sentenced him to life in
prison. He was released on March 12, 2017. Upon arriving in his
hometown, Daqamseh expressed no regrets, telling a reporter that
Israelis are "human garbage".
(SFC, 3/14/97, p.A13)(AP, 3/12/17)

1997 Mar 16, In Beit Shemesh,
Israel, Jordan's King Hussein knelt in mourning with the families of
seven Israeli schoolgirls gunned down by a Jordanian soldier.
(AP, 3/16/98)(SFC, 2/6/99, p.A10)

1997 Apr 16, Police in Israel
recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for breach
of trust in an influence-trading scandal. Prosecutors later decided
not to pursue charges against Netanyahu, citing a lack of proof.
(AP, 4/16/98)

1997 Apr 17, In Israel Chaim
Herzog, former president (1983-1993), soldier, spymaster, barrister
and author, died at age 78 in Tel Aviv. His books included "The War
of Atonement," about the 1973 war, and "Israelís Finest Hour," about
the 1967 Six-Day war.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.E2)(AP, 4/17/98)(MC, 4/17/02)

1997 Jun 30, This day marked
the deadline on passage of a new law that withdraws recognition of
non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel. Orthodox parties
threatened to withdraw from the government if the law was not
passed.
(SFEC, 6/1/97, p.D1)

1997 Jul 1, Two Israeli
soldiers were injured by a pipe bomb and 15 Palestinians were
wounded by rubber bullets in Hebron in disturbances after an Israeli
women, Tatiana Susskin (25), distributed leaflets with the Prophet
Mohammed depicted as a pig stomping on the Koran.
(SFC, 7/2/97, p.A8)(SFC, 7/5/97, p.A10)

1997 Jul 14, A footbridge over
the Yarkon River collapsed while being crossed by the Australian
delegation to the 15th Maccabiah games. Two died immediately in the
accident and 2 died later from complications possibly caused by the
pollution in the river. The games are held every 4 years for Jewish
athletes. The bridge was thrown up in less than a month with no
blueprint or foundation. 5 Israelis were convicted in 2000 for
criminal negligence. 4 officials were sentenced to prison terms from
6-21 months.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A6)(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A10)(SFC,
6/6/00, p.A16)

1997 Aug 1, Israel withheld $25
million in tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, which made
the Authority unable to meet its payroll.
(SFC, 8/4/97, p.A8)

1997 Aug 8, Fighting broke out
on the Israel-Lebanon border when guerrillas fired rockets into
northern Israel and Israeli warplanes struck back. 13 people have
died since Aug 4 when Israeli commandos set off bombs behind the
front line killing 3 guerrilla field commanders and 2 fighters.
(SFC, 8/9/97, p.A8)

1997 Aug 11, It was reported
that mobsters were in control of gambling, prostitution and money
laundering rings in the resort city of Netanya. Seven gang killings
in the last 18 months were reported and protection money was
demanded from stall holders and shop owners.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A6)

1997 Aug 18, Militiamen under
the South Lebanon Army, a key ally of Israel, shelled the port city
of Sidon and killed at least 6 people while injuring over 3 dozen.
In apparent retaliation northern Israel was hit by dozens of
Katyusha rockets fired from Lebanon.
(SFC, 8/19/97, p.A8)

1997 Aug 26, It was reported
that Israel planned to proceed with the building of a dam on the
Yarmuk River. The territory is claimed by Syria.
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 26, It was announced
that researchers at Johns Hopkins had found a gene that causes colon
cancer in some people of Jewish ancestry.
(WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A1)

1997 Aug 27, It was reported
that a 3-part expose in the Israeli Maariv newspaper alleged that
gameshow host Dudu Topaz was involved in rigging the winners in the
Mar 30 show "First in Comedy."
(SFC, 8/26/97, p.E7)(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A1)
1997 Aug 27 Israel lifted a
month-long blockade of Bethlehem imposed after a suicide bombing
July 30 that killed 16 people.
(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A1)(AP, 8/27/98)

1997 Aug 28, Four Israeli
soldiers were killed in a fire caused by strafing from Israeli
helicopters in southern Lebanon in a battle where 4 Amal guerrillas
were also killed.
(WSJ, 8/29/97, p.A1)

1997 Sep 4, In Israel a triple
suicide bombing in a mall in the heart of Jerusalem claimed the
lives of seven people, including the three assailants.
(SFC, 9/5/97, p.A1)(AP, 9/4/98)

1997 Sep 7, This was the
scheduled date for Israelís departure from the West Bank,
except for Jewish settlements and certain military locations
according to a peace accord negotiated between Arafat and Rabin on
Sep 24, 1995.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.A10)

1997 Sep 13, In Lebanon six
soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by Israeli helicopters.
(SFEC, 9/14/97, p.A22)

1997 Sep 14, Israel announced
that it will return half of the $67 million in Palestinian tax
revenues as a "goodwill gesture."
(SFC, 9/15/97, p.A10)

1997 Sep 19, Alfredo Enrique
Tello Jr. (19) was found charred and dismembered in an Aspen Hill,
Md., garage. One suspected killer, Samuel Sheinbein (17), fled to
Israel. A 2nd suspect, Aaron B. Needle (17), was held in jail. In
Oct. the attorney general decided to return Sheinbein to the US. The
two young men were indicted on murder and conspiracy charges. Needle
committed suicide by hanging in 1998. In 1999 the Israeli Supreme
Court held that Sheinbein could not be extradited. Sheinbein agreed
to plead guilty to murder and received a prison sentence of 24 years
with possible parole after 16.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A3)(SFC,10/20/97,
p.A1)(SFC,10/31/97, p.A3)(SFEC, 4/19/98, p.A18)(SFC, 2/25/99,
p.A12)(SFC, 8/25/99, p.A14)(SFC, 10/25/99, p.A10)

1997 Sep 25, In Jordan Khaled
Mashaal, the political leader of Hamas, was chemically attacked by
two men with forged Canadian passports in Amman. Hamas accused the
men of being Israeli Mossad agents. Jordan's King Hussein
intervened, forcing Israel to send the antidote that saved the Hamas
leader's life and release the group's jailed founder in exchange for
the freedom of its captured agents.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B4)(SFC,
10/12/97, p.A17)(AP, 9/25/04)

1997 Oct 1, Israel under PM
Netanyahu freed Sheik Ahmed Yassin (61), the founder and spiritual
leader of Hamas. The ill Yassin was taken to Jordan and
hospitalized. As part of the deal an antidote for the chemical used
on last weekís Meshaal attack was demanded by Jordan and Israel
requested the release of the Meshaal attackers. This secured the
release of two Mossad agents arrested in Jordan following a botched
assassination attempt against Hamas political leader Khalid Mashaal.
(SFC, 10/2/97, p.A10)(AP, 10/1/98)(Econ,
10/15/11, p.55)

1997 Oct 8, In Lebanon two
Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush. The total for the year
thus reached 37.
(SFC, 10/10/97, p.D2)

1997 Oct 12, In Jerusalem an
Arab toddler received the heart of a Jewish boy killed in a
bicycle-auto accident.
(SFC, 10/14/97, p.A10)

1997 Oct 18, In Israel storms
left five people dead. It struck during the 8-day Sukkot festival
and many people were out in nature reserves and national parks.
(SFEC,10/19/97, p.A26)

1997 Oct 19, Special U.S. envoy
Dennis Ross arrived in Israel for another round of meetings in an
effort to push the Mideast peace process forward.
(AP, 10/19/98)

1997 Oct 25, Israeli soldiers
fired tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing Palestinians who
were marching for the release of Palestinian prisoners. Some 3,000
Palestinian political prisoners were being held by Israel and a
third have never been tried.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A24)

1997 Nov 8, It was reported
that Swiss authorities had evidence that 7 Israeli secret service
agents were involved in a plot to kidnap Athena Roussel, the
12-year-old daughter of Christina Onassis and heir to a $2.4 billion
trust fund.
(SFC,11/8/97, p.A10)

1997 Nov 15, 8-year-old Ali
Jawarish died 4 days after he was shot in the head by an Israeli
soldier in Bethlehem during a stone-throwing demonstration at the
Jewish shrine of Rachelís Tomb.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A14)

1997 Nov 19, A Jewish seminary
student was killed and another wounded near the Damascus Gate in the
Muslim quarter of Jerusalemís walled Old City.
(SFC,11/20/97, p.B7)

1998 Jan 4, David Levy, the
foreign minister, resigned. He denounced Netanyahuís government for
abandoning the peace process and not addressing problems with the
poor and unemployed.
(SFC, 1/5/98, p.A1)

1998 Jan 13, In Israel the
Cabinet adopted a 12-page list of conditions for the Palestinians to
meet before the transfer of any more West Bank land.
(SFC, 1/14/98, p.C2)

1998 Jan 25, The chief
rabbinate proposed that the state recognize Reform and Conservative
converts as Jews.
(SFC, 1/26/98, p.A8)

1998 Jan 28, Israelís finance
minister, Yaakov Neeman, met with US officials and outlined a plan
to end the $1.2 billion annual economic package over 10-12 years
with an increase in annual military aid from $1.8 billion to 2.4
billion.
(SFC, 1/29/98, p.A10)

1998 Feb 11, A 50th Anniversary
Forest was to be established in the Negev Desert.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.A10)

1998 Mar 8, A letter from over
1,500 Israeli army reserve officers urged Pres. Netanyahu to curb
settlements and reach a West Bank deal with Palestinians.
(WSJ, 3/9/98, p.A1)

1998 Mar 9, In Israel soldiers
at a checkpoint killed 3 Palestinian laborers in a van near the
village of Tarkoumiah, outside Hebron. Two soldiers involved were
arrested. A military prosecutor ruled out filing charges against the
soldiers in May.
(SFC, 3/11/98, p.A8)(SFC, 5/22/98, p.D4)

1998 Mar 12, A 22-part
documentary on Israelís 50-year history was being shown by state
television. Rightwing politicians complained that it was too
sympathetic to the Palestinians.
(SFC, 3/13/98, p.A13)

1998 Mar 13, Israeli and
Palestinian troops made a joint effort to end four days of protests
over the killing of West Bank workers.
(SFC, 3/14/98, p.A9)

1998 Mar 29, In Palestine the
body of Mohiyedine Sharif, a master bomb-maker for Hamas, was found
at the scene of an exploded car in Ramallah. His body had bullet
holes. Israel denied involvement in the killing. Sharif was a member
of the Izzedine Qassam, a military wing of Hamas. Palestinian
security officials later assigned the murder to Adel Awadallah, a
rival for leadership in Hamas.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)(SFC, 4/798, p.A12)

1998 Apr 1, Israel accepted the
1978 UN Resolution 425 for withdrawal from the south of Lebanon.
(SFC, 4/2/98, p.A12)

1998 Apr 2, Three Arab homes
were demolished in the Bedouin village of Suweij. Clashes with
Israeli police occurred over the next few days as the Arabs
attempted to rebuild their homes.
(SFC, 4/6/98, p.A12)

1998 Apr 2, Shaking their fists
in rage, thousands of mourners marched in a funeral procession in
the West Bank for a top Hamas bombmaker (Mohiyedine Sharif) hailed
by Palestinians as a martyr and condemned by Israel as a terrorist.
(AP, 4/2/99)

1998 Apr 19, An Israeli settler
was shot and killed and three others, including a Palestinian man,
were wounded. Dov Dribben (28) of Maon was killed when settlers
tried to force a group of Bedouin shepherds off a contested piece of
land.
(SFC, 4/20/98, p.A9)

1998 April 29, Israel formally
opened the celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding.
According to the Gregorian calendar, the anniversary fell on May
14th.
(WSJ, 4/30/98, p.A1)(AP, 4/29/03)

1998 May 5, An exasperated
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright called on Israel to hand over
an additional 13 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians, on
top of the 27 percent already relinquished. Israel, however,
continued to balk at the proposal.
(AP, 5/5/99)

1998 May 9, In Britain the
Israeli transsexual, Dana International (Yaron Cohen), won the
annual Eurovision Song Prize with the song "Diva.".
(SFC, 5/11/98, p.D5)(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)

1998 May 13, Israeli jets
raided Lebanon and killed 3 men and wounded 21 in an attack on the
radical Palestinian group, Fatah the Uprising. As many as 10 men
were killed in a Bekaa Valley training camp for Palestinian
guerrillas.
(SFC, 5/13/98, p.A13)(SFC, 5/14/98, p.C2)

1998 May 13, A 6th Arab victim
of stabbing died in Jerusalem. A serial stabber in the Orthodox Edah
Heredit community had stabbed 5 victims since Feb., all of whom
survived. A religious court of the community, which rejects the
official state of Israel, ruled that its followers should inform
police whatever they know about the attacks.
(SFEC, 5/24/98, p.A17)

1998 May 14, Palestinians
marked the 50th anniversary of the creation of Israel with 2 minutes
of silence and several hours of violence that left 9 dead. They
refer to the creation of Israel as the "Nakba" or "Catastrophe."
(SFC, 5/15/98, p.A14)(SFC, 5/16/98, p.A10)

1998 May 16, Israeli soldiers
in Hebron wounded 10 Palestinians in the 3rd straight day of
clashes.
(SFEC, 5/17/98, p.A23)

1998 May 25, It was reported
that the 3,000-year-old Aramaic language, spoken by some 500-800
thousand people in the Middle East, was expected to die out within
2-3 decades. Parts of the Bibleís books of Ezra and Daniel were
written in Aramaic.
(SFC, 5/26/98, p.A6)

1998 May 26, Palestinian
lawmakers clashed with Israeli police in East Jerusalem after Mayor
Ehud Olmert ordered the dismantling of tin shacks built by Jewish
nationalist settlers of the Ateret Cohanim.
(SFC, 5/27/98, p.A10)

1998 Jun 13, Nissim Aloni,
playwright, died at age 72. His work included "Most Cruel the King"
(1953); "The Emperorís New Clothes" (1961), "The American Princess"
(1963); "The Revolution and the Chicken" (1964); "The Bride and the
Butterfly Hunter" (1967); "Napoleon, Dead or Alive" (1970); and "The
Gypsies of Jaffa" (1971).
(SFC, 6/16/98, p.A22)

1998 Jun 17, In Israel Nahum
Manbar, an Israeli businessman, was convicted of endangering
security through the sale of $16 million in information and chemical
weapons components to Iran. Manbar was sentenced to 16 years in July
1998 for selling materials to make nerve and mustard gas to Iran but
insisted he acted with the approval of the Israeli authorities. He
had been arrested in March the previous year. He was released from
jail in 2011.
(SFC, 6/18/98, p.A20)(AFP, 10/31/11)

1998 Jun 21, The Israeli
Cabinet approved a plan to expand Jerusalemís control far beyond its
current borders, despite protests from Palestinians and warnings
from Washington that the move was "provocative."
(SFC, 6/22/98, p.A8)

1998 Jun 25, Two Israeli
soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon by a roadside bomb and
seriously wounded 3. Meanwhile the government traded the corpses of
40 Lebanese guerrillas and the release of 60 Lebanese prisoners for
the body of Itamar Ilya, a commando killed on Sep 5, 1997.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.A16)

1998 Jul 19, Seeking to break a
16-month deadlock, Israel and the Palestinians held their first
high-level talks in months. Jalal Rumaneh (30), a member of Hamas,
attempted to explode a car bomb made of 160 gallons of flammable
liquid and nails in Jerusalem. The Fiat van ignited but failed to
explode.
(SFEC, 7/20/98, p.A9)(AP, 7/19/08)

1998 Aug 5, In Israel 2
Israelis were ambushed and killed at a Jewish seminary in Nablus as
they patrolled the boundaries.
(SFC, 8/6/93, p.A12)

1998 cAug 14, The government
approved a plan to erect barriers between Israel and the West Bank
to help prevent car thefts which totaled 46,000 last year.
(SFC, 8/19/98, p.A13)

1998 Sep 12, In Israel as many
as 100,000 people rallied in Tel Aviv demanding that the government
move the peace process forward.
(SFEC, 10/4/98, p.T11)

1998 Sep 17, In Israel a
Palestinian youth, Iyad Hashem (17), was killed in a drive-by
shooting on the West Bank.
(WSJ, 9/18/98, p.A1)(SFC, 9/18/98, p.A13)

1998 Sep 18, Hamas supporters
clashed with Israeli police during a rally for the Awadallah
brothers. 32 Palestinians were injured and the borders with the West
Bank and Gaza were again sealed.
(SFC, 9/19/98, p.A12)

1998 Sep 20, Rosh Hashana, the
Jewish new year began at sundown.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.C1)

1998 Sep 28, Yasser Arafat met
with Benjamin Netanyahu and Pres. Clinton at the White House and
agreed to hold a full-scale summit next month.
(SFC, 9/29/98, p.A1)

1998 Sep 30, In Israel the army
sent reinforcements to Hebron after an assailant threw grenades at
troops guarding a central square. 13 soldiers and 11 Palestinians
were wounded.
(WSJ, 10/1/98, p.A1)(SFC, 10/1/98, p.A14)

1998 Oct 13, In the West Bank
an Israeli man, Itamar Doron (24) was killed and another wounded by
suspected terrorists. The slaying prompted Prime Minister Netanyahu
to declare that there was no chance of signing a new peace deal with
the Palestinians.
(SFC, 10/14/98, p.A10)

1998 Oct 15, Pres. Clinton
opened the Mideast summit talks in Maryland between Arafat and
Netanyahu in Washington that resulted in the Wye River
land-for-peace agreement.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)(AP, 10/15/99)

1998 Oct 19, In Israel an
assailant threw 2 hand grenades into the central bus station of
Beersheba and injured at least 30 people. 67 people were wounded and
the incident cast a pall over the peace negotiations in Washington.
A Palestinian from the West Bank, Salem Rajab al-Sarsour (29), was
caught and confessed.
(SFC, 10/19/98, p.A14)(SFC, 10/20/98, p.A8)

1998 Oct 23, An American
brokered peace deal was reached at the Wye Plantation in Maryland
between Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu. Israeli and
Palestinian extremists denounced the deal. Land for the Palestinians
was exchanged for security guarantees to the Israelis backed by the
American CIA. Pres. Clinton agreed to release Jonathan Pollard, who
was jailed 11 years ago on charges of spying for Israel.
(SFC, 10/24/98, p.A1,10,13)(SFEC, 10/25/98,
p.A17)

1998 Oct 27, Palestinian
security forces arrested 2 gunmen in the West Bank who reportedly
confessed to the killing of Danny Vargas as well as the murder of
another Israeli on Oct 13.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A11)

1998 Oct 28, In Israel a bomb
aimed at a busload of school children exploded in the Gaza Strip and
2 people were killed.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A15)

1998 Nov 4, Israel announced
that the security issue for the new peace agreement was resolved.
They demanded the arrest of 30 Palestinian fugitives suspected of
violence. Arafat said that 12 of the 30 were already under arrest.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C2)

1998 Nov 6, In Jerusalem a car
bomb exploded at an outdoor market and 2 suicide bombers people were
killed and 23 others injured. The peace accord was immediately put
on hold by the Israeli cabinet. The Islamic Jihad claimed
responsibility.
(SFC, 11/6/98, p.D4)(SFC, 11/7/98, p.A12)

1998 Nov 11, Israelís
government narrowly ratified a land-for-peace agreement with
conditions that included alteration of the PLO charter to strike
calls for Israelís destruction.
(WSJ, 11/12/98, p.A1)(AP, 11/11/08)

1998 Nov 12, Israel gave the
go-ahead to a housing project on a Jerusalem hilltop called Har
Homa. The area is known as Jabal Abu Ghneim to the Palestinians and
was an area under dispute.
(SFC, 11/13/98, p.A16)

1998 Nov 19, In Israel the
Cabinet voted 7 to 5 to go ahead with a troop withdrawal from
Palestinian land in the West Bank, and to free 250 Palestinian
prisoners,
(SFC, 11/20/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.A1)

1998 Nov 20, Israel ceded
control of a 200-sq. mile patchwork area to the Palestinian
Authority in the 1st of 3 withdrawals. 250 prisoners were released
but 150 of them were common criminals rather than political
detainees,
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 11/30/98, p.A1)

1998 Nov 20, Israel carried out
its 100th air raid along with ground attacks in southern Lebanon.
One Amal fighter was reported killed.
(SFC, 11/21/98, p.A12)

1998 Dec 24, In Israel Gen'l.
Amnon Lipkin-Shahak left the armed forces and said he would help
lead new centrist political party against Prime Minister Netanyahu
in spring elections.
(SFC, 12/25/98, p.B8)

1998 Michael Bar-Zohar edited
"Lionhearts: Heroes of Israel," originally published by the Defense
Ministry.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.6)
1998 Thomas Cahill published
"The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way
Everyone Thinks and Feels." It was the 2nd of his projected 7-volume
"The Hinges of History" series.
(SFEC, 3/29/98, BR p.7)
1998 Avner Cohen published
"Israel and the Bomb" in NYC.
(SFC, 11/25/99, p.D2)
1998 Robert Litell published
"For the Future of Israel," based on his conversations with former
Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
(SFEC, 4/26/98, BR p.6)
1998 Efraim Halevy became head
of Mossad, Israelís intelligence service.
(Econ, 4/1/06, p.67)
1998 Yossi Vardi (b.1942),
Israeli entrepreneur, sold Mirabilis Ltd., the creator of the ICQ
instant messaging service, to American Online for over $400 million.
(Econ, 1/5/08,
p.56)(www.enewsbuilder.net/viab/e_article000077316.cfm)

1999 Jan 3, In Israel police
detained 8 adults and 6 children belonging to the Concerned
Christians sect from Denver, Colo. Police said the group planned
violent acts to hasten the 2nd coming of Christ. 11 of the members
were ordered to be deported.
(SFC, 1/4/99, p.A1)(SFC, 1/5/99, p.A8)

1999 Jan 6, In Israel former
military chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak announced his candidacy
for prime minister. Separately a man with a toy gun was killed by
soldiers.
(SFC, 1/7/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)

1999 Apr 15, In Israel Arieh
Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, was sentenced to 4
years in prison for taking bribes.
(SFC, 4/16/99, p.A18)

1999 May 7, A final peace
accord was to be settled with Palestinians by this time as
negotiated by Yasser Arafat and Rabin in [Oct] 1995.
(SFC, 1/9/96, p.A10)

1999 May 17, In Israel the
Likud and Labor party agreed to hold elections on this date. Ehud
Barak (57) won over Benjamin Netanyahu 56% to 44%.
(SFC, 12/29/98, p.A6)(SFC, 5/18/99, p.A1)

1999 May 28, An
Israeli-American search team found the Dakar, a British-made
submarine that was lost in Jan, 1968, 9,500 feet below the surface
of the Mediterranean Sea between Crete and Cyprus.
(SFC, 5/31/99, p.A8)

1999 Jun 15, Time-Warner
scheduled the release of Benjamin Netanyahu's book: "A Durable
Peace: Israel and Its Place Among the Nations," an update of his
1993 book.
(SFC, 5/25/99, p.A6)

1999 Sep 1, In Jerusalem
disagreement over the release of 30 Palestinians, jailed for killing
Israelis, was the only issue holding up the signing of a
land-for-security deal.
(SFC, 9/2/99, p.A14)

1999 Sep 3, Israel and the
Palestinians, prodded by Madeleine Albright, agreed to a peace deal
that called for finalizing borders in one year, the completion of
Wye River land-for-security, and the release of 350 Palestinian
prisoners.
(SFC, 9/4/99, p.A1)

1999 Sep 4, At Sharm El-Sheikh
(Sharm Al Sheik), Egypt, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and
Palestinian Authority Pres. Yasser Arafat signed a new deal that
ceded West Bank land to the Palestinians and set up a timetable for
peace.
(SFEC, 9/5/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 9/21/99, p.A21)

1999 Oct 18, Nelson Mandela
visited Israel for the 1st time in an effort to end enmity between
the Jewish state and the African National Congress. Israel had
supported the apartheid government in South Africa.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A13)

1999 Oct 20, In Israel
Netanyahu's home was raided by police as part of a corruption
inquiry.
(WSJ, 10/21/99, p.A1)

1999 Oct 25, Israel opened a
34-mile safe-passage corridor from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank
as Pres. Barak visited Turkey to boost military cooperation and
economic ties.
(SFC, 10/26/99, p.A10,B2)

1999 Nov 23, In Nazareth a
cornerstone for a mosque was laid next to the Basilica of the
Annunciation. Shihab el-Din, a 12th-century anti-Crusader cleric,
was believed to be buried there.
(SFC, 11/24/99, p.A16)

1999 Dec 13, Israeli troops
killed 2 men in Beit Awa in the West Bank and captured 3 others
during a search for Hamas activists.
(SFC, 12/14/99, p.B2)

1999 Dec 16, Israel and Syria
ended a first round of peace talks and scheduled a resumption for
Jan 3.
(SFC, 12/17/99, p.A12)

1999 Dec 26, Ofer Nimrodi,
publisher of the daily Ma'ariv, was indicted on charges of trying to
arrange the slaying of a witness, infiltrating the police and
interfering with their investigation in a wiretapping scandal.
(SFC, 12/27/99, p.A12)

1999 Dec 29, Israel released 26
Palestinian security prisoners as part of the interim peace accord.
It was the first time Israel had released Palestinians who had
killed Israelis or tourists.
(SFC, 12/30/99, p.C2)

1999 Dec 31, In Iran Supreme
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the destruction of Israel during
demonstrations for "Al-Quds Day." Al-Quds is the Arabic name for
Jerusalem.
(SFC, 1/1/00, p.D4)

1999 The Shengold Jewish
Encyclopedia was edited by Mordecai Schreiber.
(SFEC, 1/17/99, Par p.6)
1999 Abu Daoud first
acknowledged having a role in the 1972 Munich operation in the book:
"Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich."
(AP, 2/24/06)
1999 The Israeli film "Kadosh"
starred Meital Barda and Yael Abecassis and was directed by Amos
Gitai. It was an attack on Orthodox Jewish life and its treatment of
women.
(SFC, 5/17/99, p.D2)
1999 Ariel Sharon took over as
head of the Likud Party.
(WSJ, 10/13/00, p.A15)
1999 In Israel Boaz Wachtel
(40) established the Green Leaf Party. The party did not promote
drug use, only its decriminalization, like in the Netherlands.
(AP, 3/11/06)
1999 Scientists announced that
Y-chromosome tests had turned up a genetic link between southern
Africaís Lemba tribe (Zimbabwe) and the Jewish Cohanim, a priestly
clan going back to biblical times.
(www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3077146/)

1999 Yair Klein, a former
lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, began a prison term in
Sierra Leone. He spent 16 months in prison on charges that he was
smuggling arms to rebels from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).
Klein, through his private mercenary company, Spearhead Ltd., had
provided arms and training to armed forces in South America,
Lebanon, and Sierra Leone.
(AP,
11/20/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Klein)

2000 Jan 4, Israel and
Palestine agreed on the transfer of an additional 5% of West Bank
land.
(SFC, 1/5/00, p.A6)

2000 Jan 17, The Clinton
administration announced that talks between Israel and Syria had
been postponed indefinitely.
(SFC, 1/18/00, p.A1)

2000 Jan 14, In Israel Lafi
al-Rajabi (20), a Palestinian, died while under Israeli detention
near Ariel. His body bore wounds, cuts and bruises. He had been
arrested 7 months earlier for ties to criminal defendants and not
carrying an ID card. An Israeli official said Lafi hanged himself
and dismissed claims that he was abused.
(SFC, 1/20/00, p.C16)(SFC, 1/21/00, p.D3)

2000 Jan 20, In Israel the
attorney general called for a criminal investigation into possible
tax evasion by Pres. Ezer Weizman. Weizman was reported to have
accepted $453,465 from Edouard Saroussi, a French executive, from
1988 to 1993.
(SFC, 1/21/00, p.A12)

2000 Feb 2, In Israel an
Israeli Arab legislator, Issam Mahoul, announced that the country
possessed up to 300 nuclear warheads and that 3 new German-made
submarines would be fitted with nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 2/3/00, p.A13)

2000 Feb 7, Israeli jets
launched air attacks deep into Lebanon. Power was knocked out at
Baalbek, headquarters of the Hezbollah, and at Beirut and Tripoli.
18 civilians were injured.
(SFC, 2/8/00, p.A12)

2000 Feb 9, Israeli jets struck
targets in southern Lebanon for the 11th day and Foreign Minister
David Levy threatened that it would set Lebanon on fire if militants
retaliated with rockets.
(SFC, 2/10/00, p.A10)

2000 Feb 11, In Lebanon
Hezbollah launched another rocket attack that killed an Israeli
soldier. Israel responded with warplanes and attacks in southern
Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley to which Hezbollah responded
with fresh hits. Israel cancelled an urgent -US-led meeting called
to diffuse the widening war.
(SFC, 2/12/00, p.A11)

2000 Feb 16, In Israel German
Pres. Johannes Rau spoke before the parliament and gave an apology
for WW II Nazi genocide.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)

2000 Feb 28, Kariel Gardosh,
political cartoonist known as Dosh, died at age 79 in Tel Aviv. He
was the creator of the impish Srulik character that became a symbol
of Israel. A 1967 volume of his cartoons was titled "Sorry We Won."
(SFC, 3/4/00, p.A21)

2000 Mar 2, In Israel commandos
killed as many as 3-4 Palestinian Hamas militants at Taibeh. They
said that 4 simultaneous bombings were scheduled in crowded areas of
major cities.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 3/3/00, p.A1)

2000 Mar 5, In Israel the
government voted to back Prime Minister Barak's plan to withdraw
troops from southern Lebanon by July.
(SFC, 3/6/00, p.A10)(AP, 3/5/01)

2000 Mar 8, In Israel the
supreme court ruled that the government may no longer allocate land
based on religion or ethnicity and may no longer prevent Arab
citizens from living where they choose.
(SFC, 3/9/00, p.A1)

2000 Mar 15, In Israel the
security cabinet approved a troop pullout from 6.1% of the West Bank
as Hezbollah fired rockets at Israeli positions in southern Lebanon
and northern Israel. The areas to be ceded included several
Palestinian villages and towns near Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.
(WSJ, 3/16/00, p.A1)(SFC, 3/16/00, p.A14)

2000 Mar 21, Pope John Paul II
landed in Tel Aviv and began his official visit to Israel with a
welcome from Pres. Ezer Weizman.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 21, Israel withdrew
from 6.1% of the West Bank.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A10)

2000 Mar 24, In Israel Pope
John Paul II delivered a sermon from the Mount of Beatitudes before
some 100,000 people.
(SFC, 3/25/00, p.A10)

2000 Mar 25, In Israel Pope
John Paul II said Mass at the Basilica of the Annunciation in
Nazareth, where Catholics believe that archangel Gabriel told Mary
that she would bear the son of God.
(SFEC, 3/26/00, p.A19)

2000 Mar 26, Pope John Paul II
ended his Holy Land tour with a message of contrition at the Western
Wall in Jerusalem, a visit to Al Aqsa Mosque and a Mass at the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the traditional site for the
resurrection of Jesus.
(SFC, 3/27/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/27/00, p.A1)

2000 Apr 12, In Israel the
Supreme Court ruled that the detention of Lebanese men for more than
a decade was illegal. A release was scheduled for 13 men on Apr 17.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A14)
2000 Apr 12, Chinaís Pres.
Jiang Zemin arrived in Israel to support commercial defense
relations between the two countries.
(SFC, 4/13/00, p.A15)

2000 Apr 17, The release of
Lebanese prisoners was delayed due to a petition from the family of
Ron Arad, the Israeli pilot captured in Lebanon in 1986.
(SFC, 4/17/00, p.A12)

2000 Apr 23, Jordanís King
Abdullah II made his first state visit to Israel and spent 4 hours
in Eilat with Prime Minister Barak.
(SFC, 4/24/00, p.A12)

2000 May 2, In Israel the Day
of the Shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was observed. The date was
fixed by Israel to commemorate the Warsaw Jewish ghetto uprising of
1943.
(SFC, 5/3/00, p.A12,13)

2000 May 4, It was reported
that Israel planned to deploy a laser shield named THEL, Tactical
High Energy Laser (TRW Inc.), to shoot down rockets fired by
guerrillas following its withdrawal from southern Lebanon.
(SFC, 5/4/00, p.A16)
2000 May 4, Lebanese guerrillas
fired some 20 Katyusha rockets into Kiryat Shemona, a town in
northern Israel. One Israeli soldier was killed and over 24 people
were injured. Israel retaliated with heavy air strikes.
(SFC, 5/5/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/5/00, p.A1)

2000 May 5, Israel and
Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon agreed to a cease-fire.
(SFC, 5/6/00, p.C1)

2000 May 14, Thousands of
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza demonstrated and violence
erupted with at least one person killed.
(SFC, 5/15/00, p.A1)

2000 May 15, Palestinian police
and Israeli soldiers fought gun battles across the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. 4 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.
(SFC, 5/16/00, p.A1)

2000 May 16, Palestinian
demonstrators continued to fight Israeli forces for a 5th day but
Palestinian authorities appeared to contain most of the violence.
(SFC, 5/17/00, p.A14)

2000 May 22, In Israel the
Supreme Court ruled that women may read out load from the Torah and
wear a prayer shawl at the Western Wall. In 2003 the Supreme Court
rejected the rule.
(SFC, 5/23/00, p.A10)(SFC, 4/7/03, p.A12)

2000 Jul 25, The
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks ended at Camp David with no success
due to the difficulty over the issue of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 7/26/00, p.A1)

2000 Jul 31, Moshe Katsav of
the opposition Likud Party was elected president over Shimon Peres.
Prime Minister Barak survived an attempt to oust his government.
(SFC, 8/1/00, p.A1)

2000 Aug 1, Grand Rabbi Solomon
Halberstam, leader of the Bobov sect of Hasidic Jews, died in New
York at age 92. The Bobovs from southern Poland were among 60
Hasidic sects that included the Satmars from Hungary and the
Lubavitchers from Russia.
(SFC, 8/3/00, p.D2)

2000 Aug 5, UN peacekeeping
troops began spreading out along the border between Israel and
Lebanon.
(SFEC, 8/6/00, p.C9)

2000 Aug 15, Four prostitutes
died in Tel Aviv when a brothel was set on fire. Police suspected a
serial arsonist.
(SFC, 8/16/00, p.A18)

2000 Aug 21, Prime Minister
Barak proposed plans for civil reform that would strip the religious
establishment of many privileges and power. The proposals included a
new constitution that guaranteed greater equality between Jews and
non-Jews, a dismantling of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, a
comprehensive national service bill, and an imposed curriculum for
state-financed schools.
(SFC, 8/22/00, p.A10)

2000 Aug 26, In Israel 3
Israeli soldiers were killed in a West Bank shootout with
Palestinian militants of Hamas. The Israeli raid was an attempt to
capture Mahmoud Abu Hanoud near Nablus. Hanoud was wounded and
escaped.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.C12)(SFC, 8/28/00, p.A11)

2000 Aug 28, Prime Minister
Barak said that he planned to complete a peace deal and call for
approval by a referendum.
(SFC, 8/29/00, p.A6)

2000 Sep 3, In Israel Arjey
Deri, former leader of the Shas Party, began a 3-year term for
bribery and fraud.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.A8)

2000 Sep 6, Israeli police
officers pummeled 3 Palestinian detainees and took pictures of
themselves holding their victims by the hair. The officers were
later indicted.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)

2000 Sep 17, Prime Minister
Barak signed orders to privatize El Al. He had recently pledged
public transport on the Sabbath within 2 months and had the cabinet
begin the legal process for removing citizensí religion from
identity cards.
(SFC, 9/18/00, p.A9)

2000 Sep 21, An Iranian appeals
court reduced the prison terms for 10 Jews convicted of
"cooperating" with Israel, in a case that had drawn international
criticism.
(AP, 9/21/01)

2000 Sep 22, Yehuda Amichai,
poet, died at age 76. His 1st collection was titled "Now and in
Other Days," (1955).
(SFEC, 9/24/00, p.D15)

2000 Sep 28, Ariel Sharon led
an armed contingent of supporters to the top of Temple Mount in
Jerusalem, the site of 2 mosques, and incited Arab demonstrations.
This marked the beginning of the 2nd Palestinian uprising
(Intifada).
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A8)(SFC, 3/23/04, p.A11)

2000 Sep 29, Five people were
killed in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police
at the Temple Mount. It was the 2nd day of clashes following a visit
to the site by Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 9/30/00, p.A1)

2000 Sep 30, Rosh Hashana. The
Jewish calendar new year began 5761.
(SFC, 1/1/2000, p.A18)
2000 Sep 30, Palestinians
clashed with Israeli forces across the West Bank and Gaza for a 3rd
day and 12 Palestinians were killed with over 500 injured. Mohammed
Jamal Aldura (12) was among the dead and French TV showed him
clinging to his father as they were caught in gunfire. The Israeli
Army later said that Palestinian gunfire may have killed the boy.
(SFEC, 10/1/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A12)(SFC,
11/28/00, p.A16)

2000 Oct 1, Israeli forces
fought Palestinian rioters for a 3rd day and at least 12
Palestinians were killed. The fighting spread from the West Bank and
Gaza to towns and cities inside Israel.
(SFC, 10/2/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 2, Israeli troops
fired on protesting Arabs. 19 people were killed in the West Bank
and Gaza and another 7 in Arab towns of northern Galilee. The 4 day
toll rose to 48 dead and over 1,300 wounded. In 2003 the Or
Commission blamed the government of PM Barak for not paying
attention to rising discontent among Israelís Arabs. In 2005 Israeli
authorities, citing lack of evidence, said they would not file
charges against any police officers for the killings of 13 Arabs
during the October, 2000, riots.
(SFC, 10/3/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 10/3/00, p.A1)(SFC,
9/18/05, p.A3)

2000 Oct 3, A cease-fire
between Israel and the Palestinians quickly crumbled and the death
toll climbed to at least 54. Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat planned to
meet in Paris to seek an end to the conflict.
(SFC, 10/4/00, p.A10)

2000 Oct 4, In Israel Barak
agreed to withdraw heavy arms from the West Bank and Gaza in a bid
to halt violence.
(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 7, Three Israeli
soldiers were kidnapped on the Lebanon border. Un peacekeepers made
a film 18 hours later that showed Hezbollah guerrillas, the vehicles
used and other evidence of the abduction.
(SFC, 7/12/01, p.A12)
2000 Oct 7, Palestinians tore
up Josephís Tomb in Nablus and Hezbollah guerrillas captured 3
Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Ehud Barak threatened to use force
and to halt the peace process unless the violence stopped.
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 9, Israel backed from
a deadline against the Palestinians to stop violence in the West
Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 10/10/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 11, Palestinians
continued to riot in Gaza and the West Bank and the death toll
approached 100.
(SFC, 10/12/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 12, A mob of
Palestinians beat at least 2 Israeli reserve soldiers to death.
Israeli helicopters fired missiles at targets in Gaza in
retaliation. Two reservist soldiers, Cpl. Vadim Norjitz (33) and
Yossi Avrahami (38) were on their way to their army base in the West
Bank in October 2000 but took a wrong turn and ended up in Ramallah.
Israel later arrested at least four suspects in the killing. In 2007
a 5th suspect, Ayman Zaban, was caught in an upscale neighborhood of
the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
(SFC, 10/13/00, p.A1)(AP, 9/26/07)

2000 Oct 16, A Middle East
summit was planned to begin at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Violent
demonstrations continued in the West Bank and Gaza and 2
Palestinians were killed.
(SFEC, 10/15/00, p.A1)(SFC, 10/17/00, p.A13)
2000 Oct 16, Israel announced
the kidnapping by Hizbullah of Elchanan Tannenbaum (b.1946), a
colonel in Israelís reserves. He was kidnapped in Dubai and taken to
Lebanon. Tannenbaum was released in January 2004 as part of a
prisoner swap with Hezbollah. The swap exchanged 435 prisoners held
by Israel in return for Tannenbaum's release and the return of the
bodies of 3 soldiers killed during an ambush along the
Israeli-Lebanese border.
(Econ, 9/6/08,
p.99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elchanan_Tennenbaum)

2000 Oct 17, Israelis and
Palestinians agreed to a Middle East pact to halt the violence.
(SFC, 10/18/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 18, In Israel
undercover agents captured as many as 8 Palestinians believed to
have taken part in the lynching death of 2 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 10/19/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 19, Israeli soldiers
fought with Palestinian militiamen in the West Bank and 2 people
were killed with 18 wounded.
(SFC, 10/20/00, p.A16)

2000 Oct 21, Tens of thousands
of Palestinians too to the streets in marches and funerals in Gaza
and the West Bank. 4 Palestinians were killed and over 100 injured.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.A1)
2000 Oct 21, Arab leaders met
in Cairo for a 2-day summit where they condemned Israel for violence
and made proposals to deal with Israel.
(SFEC, 10/22/00, p.A1,21)

2000 Oct 22, Arab nations
demanded a UN war crimes tribunal for Israelis responsible for
Palestinian deaths and formally ended economic cooperation with
Israel. Ehud Barak suspended Israeli participation in the peace
process. He called for a "timeout" to decide whether negotiations
can be salvaged.
(SFC, 10/23/00, p.A1)

2000 Oct 23, Prime Minister
Barak opened negotiations with Ariel Sharon and the Likud Party for
a broad-based emergency government.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A14)
2000 Oct 23, Two more
Palestinians died from injuries received during rioting in Nablus.
(SFC, 10/24/00, p.A14)

2000 Oct 26, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up at an Israeli army outpost. 129
people, mostly Palestinians, were reported killed in over four weeks
of fighting.
(SFC, 10/27/00, p.A20)

2000 Oct 27, Palestinians
clashed with Israelis in a "Day of Rage" and 4 were killed with 150
people injured.
(SFC, 10/28/00, p.A12)

2000 Oct 30, Israel fired
rockets from helicopter gunships in the West Bank and Gaza as a
warning against the use of guerrilla tactics. The death rose to 133
Palestinians and 10 Israelis.
(SFC, 10/31/00, p.A12)

2000 Nov 17, In Jerusalem
Yasser Arafat announced that he had given orders for Palestinian
gunmen to halt their shooting. Barak noted the possibility for
intíl. supervisors in a peace agreement.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.A12)

2000 Nov 18, A Palestinian
police officer sneaked into a Jewish settlement in Gaza and shot
dead an Israeli soldier. He wounded 2 others before he was killed.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.A14)

2000 Nov 20, Israel fired a
barrage of missiles on the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an attack
on a school bus that killed 2 Jewish settlers and wounded 9 others
including 3 siblings who lost limbs. At least 35 people were
reported wounded in the missile attack.
(SFC, 11/21/00, p.A1)

2000 Nov 21, Egypt recalled its
envoy from Israel to protest the bombings in Gaza.
(SFC, 11/22/00, p.A18)
2000 Nov 21, An Israeli
motorist was wounded and a Palestinian was killed in the Gaza Strip.
(WSJ, 11/22/00, p.A1)

2000 Nov 23, The Israeli army
ordered Palestinian police to leave liaison offices after 2 soldiers
were killed in the Gaza Strip. A Hamas member was killed in a car
explosion in Nablus. A Palestinian court later sentenced to death a
man convicted of helping Israeli security agents assassinate the
Hamas bomber.
(SFC, 11/24/00, p.A1)(WSJ, 11/24/00, p.A1)(WSJ,
12/8/00, p.A1)

2000 Nov 25, Israeli soldiers
killed 4 Palestinians and wounded over 30 in a series of clashes
that undermined field level cooperation. 2 students and 2 bakers
were killed by Israeli soldiers, who claimed Jamal Abdel Razek was a
leader of the Tanzim militia traveling with 3 bodyguards.
(SSFC, 11/26/00, p.A18)(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)

2000 Nov 26, Israel attacked
targets in southern Lebanon after a roadside bomb killed one Israeli
soldier and wounded 2 others near the border. 4 armed Palestinians
were killed as they left Qalqilya into an area on Israeli control.
(SFC, 11/27/00, p.A8)

2000 Dec 1, Israelis killed 2
Palestinians and injured over 20 in clashes in the West Bank and
Gaza.
(SFC, 12/2/00, p.A13)

2000 Dec 4, Israeli soldiers
wounded 25 people in the West Bank village of Husan.
(SFC, 12/5/00, p.A14)

2000 Dec 5, The Israeli and
Palestinian violence was reported to have cost the Palestinians over
$500 million in lost wages and sales since late September.
(SFC, 12/6/00, p.A16)

2000 Dec 6, The Israeli
Betselem human-rights group condemned the Israeli army for excessive
force in combating the Palestinian intifada.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A12)
2000 Dec 6, The World Bank
approved a $12 million grant to help Palestinians.
(SFC, 12/7/00, p.A12)

2000 Dec 8, In Jerusalem and
the West Bank 7 Palestinians and 3 Israelis were killed in the
ongoing violence.
(SFC, 12/9/00, p.A16)

2000 Dec 9, Prime Minister
Barak announced that he would submit his resignation and call for
new elections. It appeared to be a ploy to prevent Benjamin
Netanyahu from running in opposition.
(SSFC, 12/10/00, p.A1)

2000 Dec 22, Israel announced
that it is prepared to surrender sovereignty over the Temple Mount
in Jerusalem as part of a peace agreement.
(SFC, 12/23/00, p.A12)

2000 Dec 23, Negotiators from
Israel and Palestine left Washington without an agreement on
critical issues.
(SSFC, 12/24/00, p.A12)

2000 Dec 25, Pres. Clinton laid
down a new set of proposals for peace between Israelis and
Palestinians. The proposals included a Palestinian concession for
some 3.7 million refugees to give up the right of return and for
Israelis to cede sovereignty over the Temple Mount.
(SFC, 12/26/00, p.A1)(SFC, 12/27/00, p.A14)

2000 Barry Chamish authored
ďThe Last Days of Israel."
(www.amazon.com)
2000 Samuel G. Freedman
authored "Jew vs. Jew," an attempt to illuminate some of the
controversy over the question: "who is a Jew."
(WSJ, 8/8/00, p.A20)
2000 Yoram Hazony authored "The
Jewish State."
(WSJ, 6/1/00, p.A20)
2000 Ilana Pardes authored ďThe
Biography of Ancient Israel."
(WSJ, 8/19/06, p.P8)
2000 Vol. 1 of the 4-volume
"The Jewish Political Tradition" was edited by Michael Walzer,
Menachem Lorberbaum, Noam J. Zohar and Yair Lorberbaum.
(WSJ, 6/29/00, p.A24)
2000 Ruth R. Wisse authored
"The Modern Jewish Canon," an examination of modern Jewish
literature.
(WSJ, 10/17/00, p.A20)
2000 Amos Gitai, Israeli film
maker, directed ďKippur," a drama about the 1973 Arab-Israeli
conflict.
(SSFC, 8/6/06, p.E1)(http://tinyurl.com/gyhxr)
2000 Shulamit Aloni (1928-2014)
received in 2000 the Israel Prize, the country's most prestigious
national award, for lifetime achievement. The award sparked howls of
protest from ultra-Orthodox leaders due to her support for
Palestinian statehood opposition to the Orthodox Jewish
establishment.
(AFP, 1/24/14)
2000 The so-called Gabriel
Stone was reportedly found in Jordan. It features an unknown
prophetic text from the time of the Second Jewish Temple. In 2013 it
went on exhibit at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
(AP, 4/30/13)

2000-2005 In the second Palestinian intifada more
than 1,000 Israelis and 3,000 Palestinians died.
(Econ, 2/11/17, p.41)

2001 Jan 1, A car bomb wounded
at least 40 people in Netanya and gunfire killed 4 Palestinians in
the West Bank.
(SFC, 1/2/01, p.A1)

2001 Jan 7, Pres. Clinton told
the people of Israel that "there is no choice for you but to divide
this land into two states for two people."
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A9)

2001 Jan 11, High level peace
talks resumed as Israel lifted the blockade of West Bank towns of
Qalqilyah and Jenin and reopened the Palestinian airport in Gaza.
Palestinian travel from the West Bank to Jordan and from Gaza to
Egypt was opened.
(SFC, 1/12/01, p.A16)

2001 Jan 18, Ofir Rafum (16) of
Israel was murdered in the West Bank after being lured over by a
woman via an internet relationship.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)

2001 Jan 19, The US and Israel
signed an agreement to phase out economic aid by 2008. Half the aid
would be replaced by military aid. Separately $80 million was
pledged to a UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A11)

2001 Jan 25, Israel and
Palestine continued talks in Egypt as an Israeli motorist was killed
in an ambush by the "Thabet Thabet Brigade."
(SFC, 1/26/01, p.A12)

2001 Jan 27, Israel and
Palestine ended 6 days of talks in Egypt. They failed to reach a
peace accord but declared that they were never closer.
(SSFC, 1/28/01, p.A18)

2001 Jan 28, In Israel state
workers under the Histadrut labor federation expanded their strike
with a walkout by workers at Ben-Gurion airport over pay demands. In
Switzerland Arafat accused Israel of waging "fascist military
aggression" and "a barbaric war."
(SFC, 1/29/01, p.A12)

2001 Jan 29, An Israeli
motorist was killed in the West Bank as Yasser Arafat reversed his
rhetoric and sent a message for peace.
(SFC, 1/30/01, p.A11)

2001 Feb 6, In Israel Ariel
Sharon won the elections over Ehud Barak 62.6 to 37.2% with a record
low turnout of 62%.
(SFC, 2/7/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 2/7/01, p.A1)

2001 Feb 7, Ariel Sharon
signaled an end to the peace process begun in 1993 in Oslo and
planned something in the spirit of Oslo on an interim level.
(SFC, 2/8/01, p.A12)

2001 Feb 8, In Israel 2 blasts
from an explosives rigged car injured one woman in Jerusalem. Ehud
Barak announced that he would take over Labor Party negotiations to
join the Sharon government.
(SFC, 2/9/01, p.A16)

2001 Mar 28, Two Israeli
teenagers were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber. Israeli
gunships followed up with missile strikes at Arafatís personal
security forces and at least 3 Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 3/29/01, p.A10)

2001 Mar 30, Israeli Arabs
observed Land Day with peaceful marches. Israeli soldiers shot to
death 6 Palestinians and wounded over 100.
(SFC, 3/31/01, p.A10)
2001 Mar 30, SAP, a large
German software firm, announced that it would buy bought Top Tier, a
small Israeli software firm founded by Shai Agassi, for $400
million. Top Tier enabled business partners to access SAP
applications using a web interface. In 2007 Agassi left SAP and
founded Better Place, a company dedicated to building a global
network of charging and battery-exchange stations to make electric
cars a mass-market proposition.
(http://irrationalbusiness.com/new/research/shorttakes/4102001.html)(Econ,
5/2/09, p.68)

2001 Apr 30, Five Palestinians
were killed in bomb blasts in Gaza and the West Bank.
(SFC, 5/1/01, p.A10)

2001 May 1, In the West Bank
Assaf Hershovitz (31), a Jewish settler, was killed when his van was
hit by 27 bullets outside Ramallah.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)

2001 May 2, Israeli bulldozers
demolished 20 houses in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza and killed
one teenager during the predawn operation.
(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B1)

2001 May 4, Sen. George
Mitchell, head of the US-led mission on Israeli-Palestinian
fighting, issued a report and said Israel should freeze settlement
constructions.
(SFC, 5/5/01, p.D1)

2001 ` May 5, In the West Bank
Ahmed Khalil Assad (37), a Palestinian militant, was shot to death
in front of his 2-year-old niece, who was injured. In Jericho
Israeli soldiers rocketed a Palestinian police base and 17 people
were injured.
(SSFC, 5/6/01, p.A14)

2001 May 7, Israeli tank fire
killed Iman Hijo, a Palestinian 4-month-old baby in Khan Yunis. A
Palestinian police officer in the West Bank was also killed.
(WSJ, 5/8/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/8/01, p.C5)
2001 May 7, It was reported
that Shaaban Abdel Rehim, an Egyptian singer, had a big hit with his
song "I Hate Israel."
(SFC, 5/7/01, p.C1)

2001 May 9, In the West Bank 2
Israeli teenagers, Koby Mandell (13) and Yossi Ishran (14), were
stoned to death and found in a cave.
(WSJ, 5/10/01, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/01, p.A16)

2001 May 10, Israel retaliated
for a roadside bomb that that killed 2 Romanian workers. Rockets
were fired at Palestinian police headquarters and Fatah offices in
Gaza.
(WSJ, 5/11/01, p.A1)

2001 May 12, In the West Bank
Moutasem Sabaa (26), a Palestinian militant, and Alaía Jaloudi, a
Palestinian policeman, were killed in an Israeli helicopter attack.
3 members of the Tanzim militia escaped.
(SSFC, 5/13/01, p.A13)

2001 May 14, Israeli forces
gunned down 5 Palestinian police officers (18-29) at a checkpoint in
Beitunia, a suburb of Ramallah. Israel later admitted that the men
killed were mistaken for members of Force 17.
(SFC, 5/15/01, p.A9)(SFC, 5/17/01, p.A10)

2001 May 15, On Israelís 53rd
birthday Israeli troops shot and killed at least 4 Palestinians and
over 200 were wounded. An Israeli woman was also killed in the West
Bank.
(SFC, 5/16/01, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/16/01, p.A1)

2001 May 21, Amid escalating
Middle East violence, an international commission submitted a report
calling for end to violence, but it was never implemented.
(AP, 9/6/03)

2001 May 23, An Israeli
contractor was killed in an ambush in the West Bank. 38 Palestinians
including 15 children were wounded in a firefight at the Rafah
refugee camp in Gaza.
(SFC, 5/24/01, p.A14)

2001 May 24, The Israeli Air
Force shot down a small plane off the coast and killed a Lebanese
student pilot (43). Israel sent tanks into the Gaza Strip and 2
people were killed.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A14)(WSJ, 5/25/01, p.A1)
2001 May 24, In Jerusalem a
Jewish wedding hall collapsed and 23 people were killed in a
horrifying scene captured on videotape.
(SFC, 5/25/01, p.A14)(AP, 5/24/02)

2001 May 25, Three Palestinian
suicide bombers attacked in Hadera and the Gaza Strip but only
killed themselves.
(SFC, 5/26/01, p.A8)

2001 May 29, In Israel and the
West Bank 3 Palestinians and 3 Israelis were killed.
(SFC, 5/30/01, p.A10)

2001 May 31, In Israel a Jewish
settler was killed in the West Bank and Palestinian (17) was killed
during a clash in Ramallah. Since Sept. 483 Palestinians have died
and 88 Israelis including 24 settlers.
(SFC, 6/1/01, p.D6)

2001 Jun 1, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed 21 young people at a Tel Aviv
disco. At least 80 people were injured in the Hamas attack.
(SFC, 6/2/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/30/01, p.D3)

2001 Jun 2, In the West Bank
Yasser Arafat announced that he would make every effort to bring
about an unconditional cease-fire.
(SSFC, 6/3/01, p.A1)

2001 Jun 4, As Israeli soldiers
and Palestinians exchanged fire in Rafah, Hamas said that it would
join the cease-fire.
(SFC, 6/5/01, p.A12)

2001 Jun 12, Israel and the
Palestinians agreed to a cease-fire following 6 days of mediation by
US CIA director George Tenet.
(SFC, 6/13/01, p.D2)

2001 Jun 13, Israel eased
travel restrictions into the West Bank and Gaza as the armistice
went into effect. Under the agreement Israel had 48 hours to pull
tanks and troops back and Palestinians were due to start arresting
militants planning attacks.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A14)

2001 Jun 14, In Israel Lt. Col.
Yehuda Edri (45) was killed by a Palestinian man, who was then
killed by Edriís bodyguard. Another Palestinian man was killed in a
driveby shooting in the West Bank and Jewish settlers were suspect.
(SFC, 6/15/01, p.A18)

2001 Jul 2, An Israeli was
killed while shopping near the West Bank and a Palestinian was
killed by Israeli troops. The US scrambled to salvage the
cease-fire.
(WSJ, 7/3/01, p.A1)(SFC, 7/3/01, p.A7)

2001 Jul 7, In the Gaza Strip a
Palestinian boy was shot and killed and 2 others injured by Israeli
soldiers. Palestinian militants were said to have been shooting in
the Raffah refugee camp area.
(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A13)

2001 Jul 13, In Gaza and the
West Bank 2 Islamic Hamas militants were killed. Israeli soldiers
shot and killed one in Tulkarm. Fawaz Badran (27) was killed when
his car exploded.
(SFC, 7/14/01, p.A10)

2001 Jul 15, PM Sharon and his
Cabinet decided to build new towns in the Halutza Sands region of
the Negev Desert. Shimon Peres met with Arafat in Cairo and a
gunbattle in Hebron left 20 Palestinians wounded.
(SFC, 7/16/01, p.A8)

2001 Jul 16, A Palestinian
suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis at a bus stop north of
Tel Aviv. The bombing was believed to be an effort to mar the
opening of the Macabiah, the Jewish Olympics in Jerusalem. Israel
retaliated by shelling Palestinian police posts in 2 West Bank
towns.
(SFC, 7/17/01, p.A6)(WSJ, 7/17/01, p.A1)

2001 Jul 17, An Israeli
helicopter fired missiles at a hut in Bethlehem and 4 Palestinians
were killed. A few hours later Palestinians fired a mortar shell
into a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.
(SFC, 7/18/01, p.A12)

2001 Jul 19, The US joined
major powers in calling for 3rd parties to monitor a cease-fire
between Israel and the Palestinians.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)
2001 Jul 19, In the West Bank
Jewish extremists, who identified themselves as the Committee for
Road Safety, killed 3 Palestinians including a 3-month-old girl, in
a drive-by shooting near Hebron.
(SFC, 7/20/01, p.A14)

2001 Jul 20, In the West Bank
an explosion leveled the office of Yasser Arafat in Hebron and Rajai
Abu Rajab, an activist in the Tanzim, was found dead. Israel denied
firing any missiles.
(SFC, 7/21/01, p.E1)

2001 Jul 25, Israeli troops
killed Salah Darwazeh, a Hamas militant, with antitank rockets as he
drove near Nablus. Informant Ahmed Abu Issah, father of nine, was
paid $50 for information on Darwazeh and was later condemned to
death by a Palestinian court.
(WSJ, 7/26/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A1)

2001 Jul 26, An Israeli youth
was killed in a drive-by shooting and 3 bombs went off in the West
Bank with no injuries.
(WSJ, 7/27/01, p.A1)

2001 Aug 5, In Israel a
Palestinian gunman shot into a crowd of soldiers in Tel Aviv and
injured 10 people before he was fatally shot. In 2 other incidents
an Israeli woman was killed in a drive-by shooting and a Palestinian
attempting to plant a bomb in Tulkarm was killed by Israeli troops.
(SFC, 8/6/01, p.A1,A10)

2001 Aug 7, Two Israelis were
shot dead on the West Bank. Israel gave its soldiers a freer hand to
fire on Palestinians.
(WSJ, 8/8/01, p.A1)

2001 Aug 10, Israeli forces
took over 9 buildings in East Jerusalem in retaliation for the
suicide bombing that killed 15 people.
(SFC, 8/11/01, p.A8)

2001 Aug 12, In Israel
Palestinian suicide bomber Muhammad Nasser (28) blew himself up at
the Wall Street Cafť in Kiryat Motzkin near Haifa. 21 other people
were injured. In Hebron a Palestinian girl died in a clash with
Israeli troops.
(SFC, 8/13/01, p.A1)(WSJ, 8/13/01, p.A1)(AP,
8/12/02)

2001 Aug 14, Israeli tanks
rolled into Palestinian-controlled Jenin. Bulldozers destroyed a
Palestinian police station and Israeli forces took back with them
some 70 Palestinians, who had been jailed in Jenin for collaboration
with Israel. In Nablus Shadi Affori (19), a Fatah member, was killed
in an explosion at his home.
(SFC, 8/14/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/15/01, p.A6)

2001 Aug 19, In the West Bank
Israeli troops killed Mohammed Abu Arrar (14) at Rafah and Muin Abu
Lawi (38) near Nablus. Samir Abu Zaid and his 2 sons were killed
when their house was shelled in Rafah. Palestinians blamed Israeli
missiles, while the Israelis blamed Palestinian mortar rounds.
Israel later said Zaid and his children were killed by a bomb he was
making.
(SFC, 8/20/01, p.A8)(WSJ, 8/21/01, p.A1)

2001 Aug 20, European monitors
in Hebron (TIPH) announced they would no longer patrol the cityís
Jewish enclave due to attacks by settlers.
(SFC, 8/21/01, p.A7)

2001 Aug 25, Palestinian
commandoes killed an Israeli officer and 2 soldiers in a pre-dawn
raid in Bedolah, Gaza Strip. 2 commandoes of the Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade were killed a 1 escaped. Palestinian gunmen north of
Jerusalem killed 3 members of an Israeli family in a car ambush. 2
children were wounded.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.A1)

2001 Aug 26, Israeli jets
flattened the Palestinian Gaza City police headquarters in
retaliation for the shooting ambush of a settler family. Other
Palestinian police buildings and checkpoints were bombed.
(SFC, 8/27/01, p.A6)

2001 Aug 27, Israeli
helicopters fired missiles into the offices of Mustafa Zibri, chief
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in El Bireh.
Zibri was killed and thousands of Palestinians began protests.
(SFC, 8/28/01, p.A1)

2001 Aug 30, Israeli forces
began pulling out of Beit Jala. 3 Palestinians were killed in
gunbattles with Israeli troops. One Israeli was killed in a
Palestinian village in a restaurant that he helped a friend
establish.
(SFC, 8/30/01, p.A1)(SFC, 8/31/01, p.A14)

2001 Sep 1, In Gaza Col. Tayser
Khattab (52), Palestinian intelligence aide, was killed by a car
bomb. Near Tulkarem a Palestinian woman (22) was killed from a blast
in a taxi.
(SSFC, 9/2/01, p.A20)

2001 Sep 3, In Jerusalem 4
bombs exploded on the streets and Israelis fired missiles into a
Palestinian security building. Two Palestinians were killed during
fighting in Hebron. In Jerusalem a suicide bomber, dressed as an
Orthodox Jew, blew himself up on the Street of the Prophets.
(SFC, 9/4/01, p.A8)(SFC, 9/5/01, p.A8)

2001 Sep 6, Israelís PM Sharon
said he was considering a buffer zone to foil terrorists. Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres said he would meet with Yasser Arafat next
week. Israeli gunships killed 2 Palestinian men. In an apparent
reprisal an Israeli soldier was shot dead and an Israeli woman
seriously wounded along the "green line."
(SFC, 9/7/01, p.A14)

2001 Sep 9, In Nahariya,
Israel, an Israeli Arab, Muhammad Saker Habashi (55), killed himself
and 3 others in a suicide bombing. At least 71 other people were
wounded. 4 other people were killed in the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 9/10/01, p.A1)

2001 Sep 17, Yasser Arafat
ordered his forces to observe a cease-fire as Israel began to
observe its Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana. In clashes 1 Palestinian
was killed and 15 wounded, while 4 Israelis were wounded.
(SFC, 9/18/01, p.B10)

2001 Sep 20, An Israeli woman,
Sarit Amrani (25), was killed in a drive-by shooting by the Al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades. A Palestinian man was killed in Gaza following a
grenade assault. Another Palestinian police officer was killed,
possibly by militants he was trying to restrain near Hebron. The
violence threatened the recent truce.
(SFC, 9/21/01, p.D2)

2001 Sep 28,
Israeli-Palestinian security officials met to work out details for
ending the bloodshed as fighting left at least 3 Palestinians. 1
Palestinian apparently blew himself up in Hebron while making a
bomb. Another 3 Palestinians were later killed while planting a mine
in Rafah.
(SFC, 9/29/01, p.B1)

2001 Sep 29, Tens of thousands
of Palestinians marched in Gaza and the West Bank to support their
uprising against Israel. 3 Palestinians were killed in
confrontations with Israeli troops.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.A17)

2001 Oct 4, PM Sharon warned
the US that it risked appeasing the Arab nations: "Do not try to
appease the Arabs at our expense." A Palestinian posing as an
Israeli soldier killed 3 Israelis in Afula. A Palestinian was killed
during a 2nd day of fighting in Hebron.
(SFC, 10/5/01, p.D4)(WSJ, 10/5/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 4, A chartered Russian
Tupelov-154 airplane crashed in to the Black Sea and all 78 people
aboard were killed. The Sibir Airlines jet was bound to Novosibirsk
from Tel Aviv. An accidental missile strike from Ukrainian military
forces was suspected but denied by Ukraine officials. Pres. Putin
said terrorists might have been responsible. Later evidence
indicated that flight 1812 was hit by an S-200 missile. On Oct 12
Ukraine and Russia acknowledged that an errant missile was the
probable cause. In 2003 Ukraine agreed to pay $200,000 for each
Israeli killed.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A11)(WSJ, 11/21/03,
p.A1)(www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/100501crash.shtml)

2001 Oct 5, PM Sharon ordered
the largest military assault in a year and 5 Palestinians were
killed in Hebron.
(SFC, 10/6/01, p.A11)

2001 Oct 14, An Israeli sniper
shot and killed Abed Rahman Hamad, a Hamas leader, hours before the
government announced that it would withdraw troops from Hebron and
ease Palestinian travel restrictions.
(SFC, 10/15/01, p.E2)

2001 Oct 16, In Israel PM
Sharon said he would accept the creation of a Palestinian state if
Israeli security needs were met.
(WSJ, 10/17/01, p.A1)

2001 Oct 17, Rehavam Zeevi,
Israeli tourist minister, was shot dead at the Hyatt Regency in East
Jerusalem. The PFLP claimed responsibility and Yasser Arafat
promised to hunt down the perpetrators. Hambi Quran, Basel al-Asmar,
Ahmed Gholmy and Majdi Rimawi were later convicted for the murder.
Ahmed Saadat, head of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine, was imprisoned in Jericho. In 2007 Hamdi Quran was
sentenced to 100 years in prison for gunning down the minister as
well as bombing and shooting attacks against Israelis. In 2008
Bassel Asmar was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder,
attempted murder and belonging to a terror organization.
(SFC, 10/18/01, p.A1)(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A16)(AP,
3/7/06)(AP, 2/6/08)

2001 Oct 18, Atef Abeiyat, a
militia commander in Arafatís Fatah, was killed with 2 others when
their car exploded near Bethlehem. 3 other Palestinians were killed
by Israeli fire including an 11-year-old school girl.
(SFC, 10/19/01, p.A1,18)

2001 Oct 28, Israel pulled out
of Bethlehem and Beit Jala. In Hadera suspected Palestinian gunmen
sprayed gunfire and killed 4 women along a main boulevard before
they were shot dead by police. Drive by shooters killed an Israeli
soldier near the northern West Bank frontier.
(SFC, 10/29/01, p.A9)

2001 Oct 29, Israel said it
would leave Palestinian territory if the cease-fire is maintained.
(SFC, 10/30/01, p.A11)

2001 Oct 30, In Israel Shimon
Peres reportedly prepared a peace initiative with plans to dismantle
Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the creation of a
Palestinian state.
(SFC, 10/31/01, p.C3)

2001 Nov 1, Israeli helicopter
missiles killed 2 Palestinians in a taxi in the West Bank. Yasser
Asideh was identified as a suicide bomber being driven to a target
by Fahami Abu Eisha.
(SFC, 11/2/01, p.D2)

2001 Nov 2, Rabbi Eliezer Shach
died at age 107. He was the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox.
(SFC, 11/3/01, p.C4)

2001 Nov 5, Israeli tanks
pulled out of Qalqilya and soon after a bomb exploded at the Jewish
settlement of Shaked, 6 miles west of Jenin. The Islamic Jihad
claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 11/6/01, p.A13)

2001 Nov 6, Israeli troops
pulled out of Ramallah. 5 Palestinians were killed along with 1
Israeli soldier in an attack on an Israeli army post and a car bomb
blast.
(SFC, 11/7/01, p.A13)(WSJ, 11/7/01, p.A1)

2001 Nov 9, An Israeli settler
was shot and killed in her car and a Palestinian was shot and killed
as he approached an Israeli army position. In Gaza a 12-year-old
Palestinian boy was wounded and died 3 days later.
(SFC, 11/10/01, p.A12)(SFC, 11/13/01, p.A14)

2001 Nov 27, Two Israelis were
killed in Afula by 2 Palestinian gunmen, who were killed by police.
Another Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli woman near a Jewish
settlement in the Gaza Strip and he was killed by Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 11/28/01, p.A4)

2001 Nov 29, A bomb attack in
northern Israel and shootings in the West Bank left 4 Israelis and 3
Palestinians dead.
(SFC, 11/30/01, p.A3)

2001 Dec 4, Israeli troops
moved into Palestinian-controlled territory in Ramallah and Nablus
and closed off 7 West Bank cities.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A12)

2001 Dec 4, Israeli troops
moved into Palestinian-controlled territory in Ramallah and Nablus
and closed off 7 West Bank cities. Israeli warplanes and helicopters
bombed at least 8 targets in 5 cities and towns including a police
building near Arafatís headquarters. A police officer and a
15-year-old boy were killed.
(SFC, 12/4/01, p.A12)(SFC, 12/5/01, p.A1,16)

2001 Dec 5, In Jerusalem
another suicide bomber sdíd outside a hotel and 2 people were
injured. Sharon gave Arafat a 12-hour reprieve to arrest those
responsible for the attacks.
(SFC, 12/6/01, p.A3)

2001 Dec 12, Palestinian
militants detonated bombs beneath an Israeli bus in the West Bank
and gunned down passengers as they fled. 10 people were killed.
Police killed 1 of 3 militants. 2 Hamas suicide bombers sdíd near an
Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip and injured 4 others.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A1,17)
2001 Dec 12, In Los Angeles
police arrested Irving David Rubin (56) and Earl Leslie Krugel (59),
leaders of the Jewish Defense League, for plotting to blow up a
local mosque.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A3)

2001 Dec 13, The Israeli
government broke off contact with Yasser Arafat and began hitting
targets in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israeli forces destroyed
Palestinian TV and radio transmission facilities and divided the
Gaza Strip into 3 parts. In Ramallah Israeli soldiers seized the
home and family of a Palestinian militia commander.
(SFC, 12/13/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/14/01, p.A1)

2001 Dec 15, Anthony Zinni, US
envoy to Israel, left after his 20 days in the region failed to
produce a cease-fire.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A14)
2001 Dec 15, Israeli forces
swept into Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip and bulldozed houses and
police outposts. 6 Palestinians were killed and 50 injured from
fighting.
(SSFC, 12/16/01, p.A14)

2001 Dec 20, Following a 3-day
lull Palestinian police in Gaza clashed with Hamas supporters and
one Palestinian was killed. Another died in a gunfight with Israeli
troops in the West Bank.
(SFC, 12/21/01, p.A3)

2001 Dec 21, Six Palestinian
teenagers were killed in skirmishes with the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas called a halt to suicide bombings and mortar attacks.
(SFC, 12/22/01, p.A1)(SSFC, 12/23/01, p.A12)(AP,
12/21/02)

2001 Dec 23, In Israel Foreign
Minister Shimon Peres and Ahmen Qureia, speaker of the Palestinian
parliament, drafted a new Middle East peace plan that called for
Israel to recognize a Palestinian state within 8 weeks.
(SFC, 12/24/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 23, Israel barred
Yasser Arafat from making his annual Christmas Eve visit to
Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
(AP, 12/23/02)

2001 Dec 28, Israeli troops
killed a suspected Palestinian bomber in the Gaza Strip. The
blockade of Bethlehem was eased. The body of a Jewish settler,
missing for over a week, was found in a West Bank cave near the
village of Jaba.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.A3)

2001 Dec 29, The US National
Yiddish Book Center published its list of great modern Jewish books.
(SFC, 12/29/01, p.D10)

2001 Colombian courts convicted
Yair Klein, a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli army, in
absentia for helping train far-right paramilitary groups in the
1980s. The Colombian government made unsuccessful attempts to obtain
his extradition from Israel. Klein was arrested by Russian
authorities in August 2007 as he touched down at a Moscow airport.
He was released to Israel in 2010.
(AP,
11/20/10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Klein)

2002 Jan 3, Israel seized a
ship, Karine A, in the Red Sea carrying 50 tons of advanced weapons
allegedly for the Palestinian Authority. Most of the equipment was
from Iran. Operation Noahís Ark was not reported until the next day
when US envoy Gen. Zinni arrived to promote peace talks. Hezbollah
helped broker the deal and it was reported to have been overseen by
Fuad Shubaki, a close aide to Arafat. Captain Omar Akawi, a member
of Fatwah, said he was in contact with Adel Awadallah, an alias for
Adel Mughrabi, a weapons buyer for the Palestinian Authority.
(SFC, 1/5/02, p.A1,9)(SFC, 1/7/02, p.A3)(SFC,
1/8/02, p.A1)

2002 Jan 9, In Israel 2 Hamas
gunmen attacked a military post and killed 4 Israeli soldiers.
Israel halted work on a mosque next to the Christian Basilica of the
Annunciation.
(SFC, 1/10/02, p.A1)

2002 Jan 14, An Israeli bomb in
the West Bank killed Raed Karmi (27), a Palestinian militia leader.
A short time later a Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli and
wounded another in a roadside ambush.
(SFC, 1/15/02, p.A8)

2002 Jan 17, In Hadera, Israel,
a Palestinian gunmen opened fire at a bat mitzvah party and killed 6
people before he was beaten and killed. 30 more were wounded.
(SFC, 1/18/02, p.A1)

2002 Jan 18, Israeli forces
bombed the Palestinian town of Tulkarm and at least 2 Palestinians
were killed. Two Israeli tanks and an armored personnel carrier
parked outside Yasser Arafat's headquarters, confining the
Palestinian leader to his office complex a day after a Palestinian
gunman burst into a banquet hall and gunned down six Israelis.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)(AP, 1/18/03)

2002 Jan 19, Israeli forces
blew up the Voice of Palestine radio station in Ramallah.
(SFC, 1/19/02, p.A1)

2002 Jan 25, A Palestinian
suicide bomber sdíd in a Tel Aviv neighborhood and at least 25
people were wounded following an Israeli missile attack in the Gaza
Strip that killed a senior Hamas commander. Separately 2 Hamas
members were killed by Israeli troops.
(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A6)

2002 Jan 26, The Palestinian
Authority again called for an end to all bombing and shooting
attacks against Israel. Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian
passing through an army checkpoint and militants were hit by an tank
shell when they tried to lay an explosive near a border fence.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.A18)

2002 Jan 31, An interview was
published in which Israeli PM Ariel Sharon said that he regrets that
Israel failed to take the opportunity to kill Palestinian leader
Yasir Arafat in Lebanon 20 years ago.
(EB, 2002, p.11)

2002 Feb 1, In Israel over 100
reserve combat officers denounced the army for immoral behavior
toward Palestinian civilians and placed ads in newspapers including
Haaretz: "We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line with the aim
of dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire
people."
(SFC, 2/2/02, p.A7)

2002 Feb 4, Israeli PM Peres
said Iran had put elite forces into Lebanon and had supplied
Hezbollah with 10,000 rockets with ranges of 13-44 miles.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A10)
2002 Feb 4, In the Gaza Strip 5
Palestinians were killed when their car exploded. Israeli military
said the men were carrying an explosive device that went off early.
5 Palestinians died in a Gaza helicopter attack.
(SFC, 2/5/02, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/5/02, p.A1)

2002 Feb 6, The PLO issued a
17-page document that listed their actions to stop terrorism.
Meanwhile, Hamas gunman, Mohammed Ziad Khalili (26), killed 2
Israelis in Hamra, a mother and daughter, before he was killed by
commandos. Israel responded with 2 missiles shot at a Palestinian
prison and government complex in Nablus.
(SFC, 2/7/02, p.A10)(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A8)

2002 Feb 7, Pres. Bush met with
Israelís PM Sharon and said he would continue to press the
Palestinian Authority to crack down on terrorism. Bush rebuffed a
plea to sever ties with Arafat.
(SFC, 2/8/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 2/8/02, p.A1)

2002 Feb 8, In Israel at least
2 Palestinians were killed when a bomb exploded prematurely. In
Jerusalem an Israeli woman was stabbed to death while strolling in
the Peace Forest. Police caught 4 Palestinians and one died
following his arrest.
(SFC, 2/9/02, p.A7)

2002 Feb 15, An Israeli
commando leader was killed by a falling wall as his troops
demolished a Palestinian militantís home in the West Bank. Israel
fired rockets at PLO offices in the Jabalija refugee camp and one
security officer was killed. Israeli Sgt. Lee Nahman Akunis (20) was
killed by Fatah gunmen outside the West Bank village of Skurda.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A9)(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A12)

2002 Feb 16, Some 20,000
Israelis rallied for peace in Tel Aviv. 2 Israelis were killed when
a Palestinian suicide bombed sdíd in a pizza restaurant in the West
Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron. In Jenin Nazih Abu Sabaah, a
Hamas leader, was killed by a car bomb. In the Bureij refugee camp 3
Palestinians were killed in gunfire with Israeli troops.
(SSFC, 2/17/02, p.A12)

2002 Feb 17, Israeli police
foiled an attempted suicide bombing near Hadera. One man was shot
and killed and another killed when his stolen car exploded. The Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed the 2 dead as its members.
(FC, 2/18/02, p.A9)
2002 Feb 17, Saudi Crown Prince
Abdullah presented a Middle East peace plan to NY Times columnist
Thomas Friedman. It included Arab recognition of Israelís right to
exist if Israel pulled back from lands that were once part of
Jordan, including East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A1)

2002 Feb 18, A Palestinian
militant ambushed a settlerís convoy, shot 3 people dead and blew
himself up. A car bombing outside Jerusalem killed an Israeli
policeman along with the bomber. 2 Palestinian gunmen attacked a
settlement in the Gaza Strip and one was killed.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A6)

2002 Feb 24, Avraham Tory (92)
died in Tel Aviv. As a Jewish lawyer in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania,
he kept a diary on the horrors of Nazi rule from 1941-1944. They
were published in Hebrew in 1988 and in English in 1990 as:
"Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary."
(SFC, 3/19/02, p.A20)
2002 Feb 24, A Palestinian
woman (27) gave birth after being shot by Israeli troops as she was
being driven to a hospital.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A11)

2002 Feb 25, Two women, Israeli
(Tamar Lifshitz) and a Palestinian (Maysoun Hayek), gave birth after
being shot in separate incidents. The Palestinianís womanís husband
was shot to death as they drove to a hospital in Nablus. The Israeli
womanís father was killed in an ambush along with another man. 4
Israelis were killed at a bus stop in Jerusalem by a gunmen who was
killed.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 5, In Tel Aviv a
gunmen killed 3 people at a restaurant in the early hours and
wounded 31 other before he was killed. A suicide bomber blew himself
up at the Afula bus station and 1 Israeli was killed. In Dura a
Palestinian police officer was killed and 4 wounded during a
gunfight with Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 3/5/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 9, A pair of
Palestinian gunmen tossed grenades and opened fire at a seafront
hotel in Netanya and 3 people were killed including a baby. A
Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a Jerusalem cafť and
killed 11 others. Israeli forces destroyed Arafatís office building
in Gaza and left 6 Palestinians dead including a 15-year-old girl.
Hamas claimed responsibility.
(SSFC, 3/10/02, p.A1,16)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)

2002 Mar 11, Israeli forces
swept into the Jabaliya camp in Gaza and 23 residents were killed in
heavy fighting. PM Sharon announced that Arafat was free to resume
traveling about the West Bank and Gaza.
(SFC, 3/12/02, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/12/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 12, Israeli forces
took control of Ramallah. 35 Palestinians were killed in the last 24
hours along with 7 Israelis.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 12, The UN Security
Council endorsed a Palestinian state for the 1st time and called for
an immediate cease-fire.
(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 13, Palestinians set
off a bomb next to an Israeli tank escorting a convoy in Gaza and 3
Israelis were killed. 2 Palestinians stabbed an Israeli husband and
wife in Nachliel. An Italian photographer was killed by fire from an
Israeli tank.
(SFC, 3/14/02, p.A6)(WSJ, 3/14/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 15, Adm. Zinni, US
envoy, met with Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and demanded that he reign
in militants and enforced a cease fire.
(SFC, 3/16/02, p.A7)

2002 Mar 17, Israeli and
Palestinian officials met to prepare for a cease-fire following
meetings with US envoy Adm. Zinni. A Palestinian gunman opened fire
in Kfar Saba. He killed an Israeli high school student (18) and was
shot dead. A suicide bomber detonated himself in Jerusalem.
(SSFC, 3/17/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/02, p.A3)

2002 Mar 24, Israeli troops and
tanks entered the Rafah refugee camp and 3 residents were killed. 2
more Palestinians were killed as they tried to throw a grenade at a
military post near Dugit. Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians
left at least 9 Palestinians dead along with 2 Israelis. US envoy
Zinni presented a cease-fire proposal to Israeli and Palestinian
negotiators.
(SSFC, 3/24/02, p.A14)(SFC, 3/25/02, p.A8)

2002 Mar 25, The US pushed for
Ariel Sharon to allow Yasser Arafat to attend an Arab summit in
Beirut.
(SFC, 3/26/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 26, Yasser Arafat
declared that he would not attend the Arab league conference in
Beirut due to restrictions imposed by PM Sharon. Israeli security
forces stopped a car that exploded with 2 men inside.
(SFC, 3/27/02, p.A1)

2002 Mar 28, A Hamas attack
left 4 Israelis dead in a West Bank settlement. Arafat said he was
ready to call for a cease-fire.
(WSJ, 3/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 28, In Beirut the Arab
League committed to accepting Israel as a neighbor under conditions
that included the creation of an independent Palestinian state and
Israel's full withdrawal from war-won lands, an offer that Israel
did not accept..
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A15)(AP,
3/28/03)(www.mideastweb.org/saudipeace.htm)

2002 Mar 29, Israel declared
Yasser Arafat an "enemy" and sent troops and tanks to isolate him in
his Ramallah headquarters in Operation Defensive Shield. 5
Palestinians, possibly executed, and 2 Israelis were killed in the
takeover. In Jerusalem a suicide bomber, Ayat Akhras (18) killed
herself and 2 Israelis. In the Gaza Strip a Palestinian man stabbed
to death 2 elderly Israelis and was shot to death by soldiers.
(SFC, 3/29/02, p.A1)(SFC, 3/30/02, p.A1,11)(SSFC,
3/31/02, p.A18)(AP, 9/6/03)

2002 Mar 30, A suicide bomber,
Mohannad Salahat (22), struck in Tel Aviv and 32 people were
injured. Israeli troops sealed Arafat in his Ramallah compound.
(SSFC, 3/31/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A1)(SFC,
7/24/02, p.A14)
2002 Mar 30, The United States
joined other U.N. Security Council members in adopting a resolution
calling on Israel to withdraw its troops from Palestinian cities,
including Ramallah, where Yasser Arafat headquarters was under
siege.
(AP, 3/30/03)

2002 Mar 31, Israeli forces
entered Qalqilya and Bethlehem. 2 Palestinians were killed after
they fired on Israeli soldiers. Some 40 European and American peace
activists joined Yasser Arafat. Israeli PM Ariel Sharon vowed to
smash Palestinian militants in a broadcast speech that came the same
day as a suicide bombing in Haifa that killed 15 Israelis. In 2009
Shimon Shiran died of wounds suffered in the bombing that also
killed his daughter Adi (17).
(SFC, 4/1/02, p.A1,10)(AP, 3/31/07)(AP, 4/12/09)

2002 Apr 1, Israeli forces
expanded their hunt for militants and terrorists to included ranking
officials of Arafatís Palestinian Authority. Israeli tanks and
bulldozers rumbled into more Palestinian towns and massed on the
edge of Bethlehem in an expansion of a West Bank offensive. A sniper
killed an Israeli in Har Homa. A bomber blew up in his car in West
Jerusalem and killed the Israeli police officer who stopped him.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 4/1/07)

2002 Apr 2, The Israeli army
attacked the headquarters of Jibril Rajoub, security chief of the
Palestinian Authority. The Israeli Army said it found a letter in
Arafatís compound that detailed money requests for building bombs.
PM Sharon offered Yasser Arafat a one-way ticket to exile and
battles with Palestinian militiamen continued and at least 13
Palestinians were killed.
(SFC, 4/2/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A1,10)(WSJ,
4/3/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 3, Israeli tanks
entered the Wet Bank cities of Jenin, Salfeet and Nablus. At least 1
Israeli soldier and 12 Palestinians were killed. Gunners from
Lebanonís Hezbollah exchanged artillery and mortar fire with Israeli
troops. Scores of Palestinian gunmen were holed up in the Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Egyptian government announced a
cutoff of official contacts with Israel. Syria shifted 20,000 troops
in Lebanon toward the Lebanese-Syrian border reportedly in accord
with the 1989 Taif agreement.
(SFC, 4/3/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/4/02, p.A1,13)(WSJ,
4/4/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 6, Pres. Bush repeated
his call for Israel to "withdraw without delay" from West Bank towns
it had occupied since launching an offensive after a string of
suicide attacks. Bush also demanded the Palestinians call "an
immediate and effective cease-fire."
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A3)(AP, 4/6/03)
2002 Apr 6, Arab League
ministers in emergency session denounced the Bush administrationís
handling of the Middle East conflict. Some 15k Jordanians marched in
Ibrid. Over 20k marched in Paris and another 20k marched in Rome.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A7)
2002 Apr 6, Israeli troops
intensified their assault on West Bank towns and refugee camps. Over
20 thousand Jews and Arabs marched in Tel Aviv demanding that the
government withdraw from the West Bank and resume talks.
(SSFC, 4/7/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 7, Israeli forces
continued Operation Defensive Shield and news reporters were kept
away. 12 Palestinians were killed in Nablus with stiff resistance in
the Jenin refugee camp. Worldwide protests included a march in
Morocco by a half million people and in Brussels by some 10,000.
(SFC, 4/8/02, p.A1,8)(AP, 4/7/03)

2002 Apr 8, In Israel PM Sharon
announced a limited pullback of troops and the building of buffer
zones. The stance of the Bush administration called for immediate
withdrawal but expected action to coincide with Sec. of State
Powellís arrival Apr 12.
(SFC, 4/9/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A18)

2002 Apr 9, The 12 day Israeli
offensive continued and dozens of Palestinians were reported dead in
the fiercest fighting to date. An explosion in the Jenin refugee
camp killed 13 Israeli soldiers. PM Sharon declared Israel to be in
a struggle for survival.
(SFC, 4/10/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 4/10/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 10, In Ramallah Manal
Sofran, a Palestinian housewife, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A17)
2002 Apr 10, Sec. of State
Colin Powell stopped in Spain to gather EU support in the Middle
East conflict. He again called for an immediate end to Israelís
military operations.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A14)

2002 Apr 11, US Sec. of State
Colin Powell arrived in Israel to push for peace talks. Israel sent
tanks and troops into 2 more Palestinian villages. A Palestinian
suicide bomber died when his explosives blew up prematurely.
(SFC, 4/11/02, p.A1)(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A1)
2002 Apr 11, In Tunisia a gas
tanker truck crashed into the wall of a El Ghriba synagogue on the
island of Djerba and killed 14 Germans, 6 Tunisians and a Frenchman.
The government at first called it an accident. Later evidence
indicated that it was an act of terrorism. Nizar Nawar (24), a
Tunisian citizen who had studied in Canada, was the driver. Al Qaeda
later claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 4/12/02, p.A17)(SFC, 4/17/02, p.A8)(SFC,
4/24/02, p.A7)(WSJ, 5/2/02, p.A13)(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A3)(WSJ,
8/20/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 12, Colin Powell
arrived in Israel as another suicide bombing killed 6 people in
Jerusalem at the Mahane Yehuda market. Powell failed to PM Sharon to
set a timetable for withdrawal from West Bank cities. Powell
postponed a meeting with Arafat and demanded that Arafat condemn the
latest attack. Estimates of Palestinian dead from Israeli operations
in Jenin reached 100-200. An elderly Palestinian couple were rescued
after being buried for 7 days by an Israeli bulldozer in Jenin.
(SFC, 4/13/02, p.1,13)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A11)

2002 Apr 13, Yasser Arafat
issued a statement condemning terrorism and planned to meet with
Colin Powell the next day. Hamas declared it had no intention of
halting attacks.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 14, PM Sharonís peace
plan was outlined and included 2 West Bank security zones, border
controls, a demilitarized Palestinian state, and economic
development assistance. Colin Powell met with Yasser Arafat and
later with PM Sharon, but made little headway on a cease-fire or
Israeli withdrawal. Some restrictions on reporters in the West Bank
were lifted.
(SSFC, 4/14/02, p.A12)(SFC, 4/15/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 15, Israeli forces in
Ramallah seized Marwan Barghouti, a top Arafat lieutenant and
alleged leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Two Palestinians
were killed in fighting near Bethlehem and 2 of some 200
Palestinians surrendered at the Church of the Nativity Israeli
forces played high-decibel sounds around the clock.
(SFC, 4/16/02, p.A1,10)

2002 Apr 17, Colin Powell ended
his Middle East mission and returned to the US as fighting
continued. Pres. Mubarak cancelled their meeting in Cairo. Israel
commemorated its independence.
(SFC, 4/18/02, p.A1,13)

2002 Apr 18, Omar Abu Selmia
(15), wired with grenades, was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers
as he tried to enter a Jewish settlement in Gaza.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 19, Israel announced
that "Operation Defensive Shield is over" and their forces
completed withdrawal from Jenin. Israeli military reported the
capture of Husam Ataf Ali Badran, a Hamas leader, near Nablus. 2
Palestinians were reported killed by Israeli gunfire in Gaza. A
suicide bomber blew himself up in central Gaza. 3 Palestinians were
reportedly killed by Israeli fire in Gaza. The UN approved a
fact-finding mission into Israeli actions at Jenin.
(SFC, 4/19/02, p.A20)(SFC, 4/20/02, p.A1,14)

2002 Apr 22,
Israeli-Palestinian fighting left 7 Palestinians dead in the West
Bank and Gaza along with 1 Israeli soldier. A leader of the al Aqsa
Martyrs Brigade was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack.
(SFC, 4/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 4/23/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 25, A Palestinian
military filed court sentenced 4 Arafat followers to prison terms
for their roles in the 2001 slaying of Israeli minister Rehavan
Zeevi. Israel called the trial a sham.
(SFC, 4/26/02, p.A20)

2002 Apr 26, Israeli forces
moved into Qalqilya and 3 smaller settlements. Raed Nazal, a
Qalqilya leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, was killed and 16 militants were captured. Fighting took
place in Ramallah and 4 Palestinians surrendered at the Church of
the Nativity in Bethlehem. Ismael Abu Shanab, a Hamas spokesman,
said Hamas has accepted the terms of the Saudi peace proposal.
(SFC, 4/27/02, p.A14)(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A15)

2002 Apr 27, A UN team
scheduled to arrive in Israel for an inspection at Jenin was
postponed for a day over differences in the teams objectives.
(SFC, 4/27/02, p.A13)
2002 Apr 27, Palestinian gunmen
attacked the Israeli settlement of Adora and killed 4 people
including a 5-year-old girl. 3 gunmen escaped but one was later
found and killed in a nearby village.
(SSFC, 4/28/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 28, The Israeli
Cabinet approved a deal to lift the siege of Arafatís compound in
Ramallah after promises that US and British jailers would guard the
terrorist suspects held there. The Cabinet refused to allow a UN
team to investigate charges of a massacre at Jenin. Israeli troops
had surrounded the compound in Ramallah demanding Arafat turn over
the six men who had sought refuge inside. Five of the men, including
Ahmad Saadat, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine, were implicated in the 2001 assassination of Israeli
Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The sixth, Fuad Shobaki,
masterminded an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian
Authority on a ship called the Karine A. President Bush brokered a
deal with Israeli PM Ariel Sharon that sent the six men to a
Palestinian prison in Jericho, where they were guarded by US and
British monitors. In return, Israeli troops pulled back from
Arafat's West Bank compound.
(SFC, 4/29/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/15/06)

2002 Apr 29, Israeli forces
went into Hebron and at least 9 people were killed and dozens
arrested. It was a retaliation for the Apr 27 attack.
(SFC, 4/30/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr 30, Israel blocked the
UN proposed fact-finding mission to Jenin. Israeli forces pulled out
of Hebron and 26 Palestinians emerged from the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem.
(SFC, 5/1/02, p.A1)

2002 Apr, Israeli police
arrested 2 Jewish settlers for planting a bomb at a Palestinian
girlís school. 4 more were later taken into custody including Noam
Federman, head of the outlawed Kach movement. A bomb attack on an
Arab boyís school was also recently foiled.
(SSFC, 5/19/02, p.A10)

2002 Apr, Rageb Jaradat killed
8 people and injured 22 when he blew himself up on a bus between
Jenin and Haifa.
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.A7)

2002 May 1, Israeli forces
withdrew from Ramallah and Yasser Arafat, under siege since Mar 29,
emerged from his West Bank compound. 6 wanted Palestinian men were
driven to Jericho under US and British supervision.
(SFC, 5/2/02, p.A1)

2002 May 2, Yasser Arafat
emerged from his West Bank headquarters, hours after Israeli troops
withdrew from his compound and released the Palestinian leader from
months of confinement.
(AP, 5/2/03)

2002 May 5, Middle East
negotiations over the siege of the Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem approached agreement with a deal to send some of the
Palestinians into exile and others to the Gaza Strip for trial.
Startled Israeli soldiers killed a mother and 2 children (4&6)
near Jenin.
(SFC, 5/6/02, p.A1)

2002 May 7, Pres. Bush met with
PM Ariel Sharon. They called for sweeping changes to Palestinian
governing institutions and a new Palestinian security service but
they failed to agree on many other issues.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A18)
2002 May 7, In Israel a Hamas
suicide bomber killed 15 people in a pool hall in Rishon Lezion.
Hamas claimed responsibility.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A14)(AP,
5/7/03)

2002 May 8, In Israel a suicide
bomber detonated himself prematurely. Israeli sappers used a robot
to drag the man, still alive, across a road for inspection.
(SFC, 5/8/02, p.A12)

2002 May 10, Arab leaders
pressed Yasser Arafat to stop suicide bombings as Israel delayed a
strike into Gaza.
(SFC, 5/11/02, p.A8)
2002 May 10, In Jerusalem 120
Palestinians left the Church of the Nativity following complex
negotiations and 39-day standoff. 13 senior militants faced
deportation to Cyprus and 26 were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/10/02, p.A1)

2002 May 11, In Tel Aviv,
Israel, some 50,000 protested for peace. A military attack on Gaza
was put on hold. Israel pulled out of the West Bank town of
Tulkarem, leaving Palestinian-run territories free of Israeli troops
for the first time in six weeks.
(SSFC, 5/12/02, p.A10)(AP, 5/11/03)

2002 May 12, In Israel PM Ariel
Sharon's Likud Party, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, voted to never
allow the creation of a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority
told 26 men transferred from the Church of the Nativity that they
could have jobs in any government bureaucracy including positions in
Gaza's Tanzim militia.
(SFC, 5/13/02, p.A1,12)(AP, 5/12/03)

2002 May 15, In Israel Binyamin
Ben-Eliezer, the defense minister, proposed a peace package that
called for sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians and granting them
most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(SFC, 5/16/02, p.A6)

2002 May 17, Yasser Arafat
changed his previous dayís remarks and said balloting would only
take place if Israel withdraws from occupied territory.
(SFC, 5/17/02, p.A1)

2002 May 19, In Israel a
suicide bomber killed himself, 3 Israelis and wounded over 50 in a
market in Netanya.
(SFC, 5/20/02, p.A1)

2002 May 20, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and Israeli troops in
Tulkarem arrested a women who planned a suicide attack. It was also
reported that a Palestinian plan to bomb the twin 50-story towers in
Tel Aviv had been thwarted 3 weeks earlier. PM Sharon fired 4
Cabinet members of Shas who helped defeat his emergency economic
plan.
(SFC, 5/21/02, p.A1)

2002 May 22, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis in Rishon
Letzion, a Tel Aviv suburb. Some 3 dozen people were injured. A
Ukrainian Christian woman, previously misidentified, and her
Palestinian husband drove the suicide bomber to the site. Irena
Plitzik said she did not know about the suicide mission. A 2nd
bomber, Tauurya Hamamra, backed out.
(SFC, 5/23/02, p.A10)(WSJ, 5/23/02, p.A1)(WSJ,
5/31/02, p.A1)(SFC, 5/31/02, p.A10)(SSFC, 6/2/02, p.A11)

2002 May 23, In Israel a bomb
exploded under a tanker truck near a fuel depot but failed to ignite
the tanker fuel.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A18)
2002 May 23, The Israeli
Embassy in Paris burned beyond repair. A faulty circuit was
suspected.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A16)

2002 May 24, An Israeli guard
foiled an attempt to blow up the packed Studio 49 nightclub in Tel
Aviv.
(SFC, 5/24/02, p.A18)

2002 May 25, Israeli troops
seized Bethlehem and surrounded the house of Muhammed Shehade, a
leader of the Islamic Jihad. A Palestinian woman and her daughter
(13) were killed by Israeli fire on a farm in the Gaza Strip.
(SSFC, 5/26/02, p.A13)

2002 May 26, Israeli forces
moved into Bethlehem for the 2nd time in 2 days.
(SFC, 5/27/02, p.A3)

2002 May 27, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and 2 Israelis, a toddler
and her grandmother, at a mall in Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv.
(SFC, 5/28/02, p.A6)

2002 May 28, A Palestinian
gunmen attacked an Israeli settlement near Nablus and killed 3
students at an Orthodox high school. The gunman was killed.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)

2002 Jun 8, Palestinians
entered a Jewish settlement in the West Bank early Saturday and
killed three Israelis in a shooting attack, the military and
paramedics said. Three Israelis and seven armed Palestinians were
killed.
(AP, 6/7/02)(AP, 6/9/02)
2002 Jun 8, Pres. Bush met with
Egyptís Pres. Hosni Mubarek, who said Middle East violence would
continue until Israel withdraws from Palestinian territory and hope
for a future is restored to the Palestinian people.
(SSFC, 6/9/02, p.A12)

2002 Jun 10, Israeli tanks and
troops charged into Ramallah before sunrise Monday, surrounding the
compound of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and arresting 20
suspected militants in searches throughout the city.
(AP, 6/10/02)(SFC, 6/10/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 10, A bomb exploded
near an armored bus in the West Bank, injuring three teenaged
students from a religious seminary at a nearby Jewish settlement on
their return from picking cherries.
(Reuters, 6/11/02)

2002 Jun 12, Israeli troops
shot and killed five armed Palestinians and a 9-year-old boy in
separate incidents near a Jewish settlement, while a Palestinian
suicide bomber blew up a fast food restaurant in a Mediterranean
resort town, killing a 15-year-old Israeli girl. Israeli forces
pulled out of the West Bank town of Ramallah, lifting their latest
blockade on Yasser Arafat's office, as Secretary of State Colin
Powell raised the idea of a provisional Palestinian state.
(AP, 6/12/02)(AP, 6/13/02)

2002 Jun 15, It was reported
that a new book by Carnegie Endowment for Intíl. Peace reported that
Israel was attempting to arm its diesel submarines with nuclear
cruise missiles. [see Feb 2, 2000]
(SFC, 6/15/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 15, Four Israelis were
injured, two critically, when at least one Palestinian opened fire
at a Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 6/15/02)

2002 Jun 17, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up on Israel's frontier with the West
Bank, shortly after Israel angered the Palestinians by starting work
on a security fence between the two territories. In 2003 the UN said
the fence carved off 14% of the West Bank and barred a route to work
for some 400,000 Palestinians.
(Reuters, 6/17/02)(WSJ, 11/12/03, p.A1)
2002 Jun 17, It was reported
that fundamentalist Tunisian Jews on Djerba Island were exempt from
the countryís mandatory secular education. They numbered about a
1,000.
(WSJ, 6/17/02, p.A16)

2002 Jun 18, A Palestinian man,
Muhammad al-Ghoul (22), detonated nail-studded explosives on a
Jerusalem bus crowded with high school students and office workers,
killing himself and 19 passengers in the city's deadliest suicide
attack in six years. Fifty-five people were wounded in the Hamas
attack.
(AP, 6/18/02)(SFC, 6/19/02, p.A10)(SFC, 6/19/02,
p.A10)

2002 Jun 19, Israel launched
Operation Determined Path and announced it will gradually reoccupy
Palestinian areas until terrorism stops in a major policy change
prompted by a deadly bus bombing. Israeli troops raided three West
Bank towns from which dozens of terror attacks have been launched.
Seven Israelis were killed when a Palestinian suicide bomber blew
himself up at a crowded bus stop in northern Jerusalem. About 50
people were injured. Hamas declared a war on buses.
(AP, 6/19/02)(AP, 9/6/03)

2002 Jun 20, Palestinian gunmen
killed 5 Jewish settlers at the Itamar settlement in the West Bank.
The 2 assailants were killed. The mother of the family and three of
her children were murdered. Another two children were seriously
injured and a local security official was shot to death as he tried
to help.
(SFC, 6/21/02, p.A1)(AP, 3/12/11)

2002 Jun 21, Israeli tanks
opened fire on the market in the northern West Bank town of Jenin,
killing 4 Palestinians, including 3 children, hospital officials
said. The Israeli army said soldiers had mistakenly fired on a group
of curfew violators. Israelis from the West Bank settlement of
Itamar returning from funerals killed a Palestinian during a rampage
in the village of Hawara.
(AP, 6/21/02)

2002 Jun 24, Israeli forces
killed six Palestinians in a helicopter missile strike on a car
carrying Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip on Monday and
surrounded Yasser Arafat in his headquarters in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/24/02)
2002 Jun 24, Pres. Bush
outlined his blueprint for peace in the Middle East. His statement
included a call on Palestinians to replace Yasser Arafat with
leaders "not compromised by terror" and adopt democratic reforms
that could produce an independent state within three years.
(SFC, 6/25/02, p.A1)(AP, 6/24/03)

2002 Jun 25, Israeli soldiers
stormed the fortress-like Palestinian headquarters in the city of
Hebron, occupying the seventh of eight main West Bank centers.
Palestinian security officials said four policemen were killed.
(AP, 6/25/02)

2002 Jun 26, A Belgian appeals
court tossed out the war crimes case against Israeli PM Sharon, for
his role in the 1982 massacre at the Lebanon Shatila refugee camp,
and said subjects had to be on Belgian soil in order to be
investigated and tried.
(SFC, 6/27/02, p.A8)

2002 Jun 27, Belgian
authorities signed agreements to pay about $55 million to the
country's Jewish community for property lost during the Nazi
occupation.
(AP, 6/27/02)
2002 Jun 27, Israel's army
urged Palestinians holed up under fire for a third day in a West
Bank compound to surrender Thursday, warning it will overrun the
battered Hebron government complex if those inside refuse to come
out. Helicopter gunships fired missiles into the Hebron complex.
(AP, 6/27/02)(SFC, 6/28/02, p.A10)
2002 Jun 27, In Khartoum,
Sudan, representatives of 57 Muslim nations pledged support for
Palestinians in a resolution that made no mention of President
Bush's call for Palestinians to elect a new leadership. In 21 months
of violence, 1,739 people have been killed on the Palestinian side
and 564 people on the Israeli side.
(AP, 6/27/02)

2002 Jun 28, The Israeli army
smashed through an outer wall of the Palestinian Authority
headquarters in Hebron to try to flush out suspected militants. An
Israeli military court sentenced a 16-year-old Palestinian from the
militant Hamas movement to life in prison for trying to blow himself
up when confronted by Israeli police, the first time a would-be
bomber was brought to trial.
(Reuters, 6/28/02)(AP, 6/28/02)

2002 Jun 29, The Israeli army
ended a four-day siege of a Palestinian police headquarters by
blowing up the hilltop compound where about 15 suspected militants
had taken refuge. 2 Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli
soldiers.
(Reuters, 6/29/02)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A14)
2002 Jun 29, Israelís Defense
Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called for the immediate dismantling
of 10 illegal outposts in the West Bank.
(AP, 6/29/02)(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A14)

2002 Jun 30, An Israeli tank
shelled a house in Nablus and killed Mohammed Tahir, a local Hamas
leader and bombmaker, along with an aide.
(SFC, 7/1/02, p.A3)

2002 Jul 4, The Palestinian
police chief Ghazi Jabali decided to resign and run for president
following a controversy over whether Yasser Arafat had tried to oust
both him and security commander Jibril Rajoub.
(Reuters, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 4, An explosion
shattered a white Mercedes, killing two people including Jihad
Amerin (38), a Gaza leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Palestinian police said their initial suspicions were Israeli agents
had planted a bomb.
(AP, 7/4/02)(SFC, 7/5/02, p.A7)
2002 Jul 4, Hesham Mohamed
Hadayet (41), an Egyptian-born 10-year resident of Irvine, opened
fire at Israelís El Al airline ticket counter in Los Angeles'
airport. Victoria Hen and Yaakov Aminov were killed before Hadayet,
born July 4, 1961, was shot to death by a guard.
(AP, 7/5/02)(Reuters, 7/5/02)(SFC, 7/5/02,
p.A1)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A12)

2002 Jul 6, Randi Hindi (44), a
Palestinian woman, and her 2-year-old daughter were shot to death
while riding in a taxi in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians claimed
Israeli troops were responsible. But the Israeli army said its
soldiers did not fire anywhere in the area.
(AP, 7/6/02)(SSFC, 7/7/02, p.A9)

2002 Jul 9, A Palestinian
gunman opened fire on Israeli police officers just outside the
walled Old City of Jerusalem, wounding one, and a passer-by was
killed in the ensuing gunbattle.
(AP, 7/9/02)

2002 Jul 10, Palestinian gunmen
shot and killed an Israeli army lieutenant on patrol in the southern
Gaza Strip, and Israeli troops fatally shot a 19-year-old
Palestinian in the West Bank.
(AP, 7/10/02)

2002 Jul 12, Palestinian
free-lance photographer Imad Abu Zahra died of a gunshot wound in
the northern West Bank, and a fellow photographer said the shots
came from a machine gun on an Israeli tank July 11. 2 Palestinians
were killed in an exchange of gunfire in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/12/02)(SFC, 7/13/02, p.A9)

2002 Jul 14, A
Palestinian man, on trial for allegedly collaborating with Israel,
was killed by Palestinian militants after an Israeli airstrike
disrupted court proceedings. Israeli aircraft fired missiles and
destroyed a building in the southern Gaza Strip, injuring about 10
Palestinians.
(AP, 7/14/02)

2002 Jul 16, In the West Bank
Palestinian gunmen ambushed a bus at the Emmanuel settlement left 8
Israelis dead.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 16, Belgian banks
signed agreements to pay some $54 million to the countryís Jewish
community for property lost during the Nazi occupation.
(SFC, 7/17/02, p.A9)

2002 Jul 17, In Israel a double
suicide bombing in Tel Aviv killed two foreign workers and one
Israeli. Over 40 people were injured.
(WSJ, 7/18/02, p.A1)(SFC, 7/18/02, p.A1)(AP,
7/17/07)

2002 Jul 19, Israel introduced
collective punishment on the family of Ali Ajouri, following his
role in the July 17 suicide bombing.
(AP, 8/8/02)

2002 Jul 20, A car exploded
near a mosque in an Israeli Arab neighborhood of Tel Aviv, killing
the driver.
(AP, 7/20/02)

2002 Jul 23, An Israeli F-16
warplane dropped a one ton bomb that flattened a Gaza City apartment
building, killing Salah Shehadeh, the leader of Hamas' military
wing, and at least 14 other Palestinians, including nine children.
Shehadeh was at the top of Israel's most wanted list. The dead
included Shehadehís wife and 3 kids. In 2009 a Spanish judge began
an investigation into seven current or former Israeli officials over
the 2002 bombing. In 2011 an Israeli inquiry ruled the air strike
legal and blamed faulty intelligence for the civilian deaths.
(AP, 7/23/02)(SFC, 7/23/02, p.A1)(AP,
1/29/09)(SFC, 2/28/11, p.A2)

2002 Jul 23, Chaim Potok (73),
rabbi and author of novels that included "The Chosen," died at his
home in suburban Philadelphia. "Literature presents you with
alternative mappings of the human experience."
(SFC, 7/24/02, p.A1)

2002 Jul 25, Israeli police
said an Israeli policeman has been arrested on suspicion of selling
ammunition to Palestinians, raising to ten the number of suspects
detained in the case.
(AP, 7/25/02)
2002 Jul 25, Palestinian gunmen
shot dead a Jewish rabbi settler in what militants called the first
response to an Israeli air strike that killed 15 Palestinians
including a top militant.
(Reuters, 7/25/02)

2002 Jul 26, Israel sent tanks
and troops into Gaza City. Troops fatally shot a Palestinian man as
he stood in his kitchen in Qalqiliya. Palestinian security officials
said Israeli soldiers were firing live ammunition as they searched
houses, and that the man had been hit in the head.
(AP, 7/26/02)

2002 Jul 26, Palestinian gunmen
waiting in ambush fired on two passing Israeli cars near a Jewish
settlement in the southern West Bank, killing four people and
injuring two children before fleeing.
(AP, 7/26/02)

2002 Jul 28, Jewish settlers
went on a rampage as they returned home from the funeral of an
Israeli soldier, shooting dead a 14-year-old girl and wounding
several other Palestinians.
(AP, 7/28/02)(SFC, 7/31/02, p.A12)

2002 Jul 30, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up at a central Jerusalem fast-food
stand popular with police, wounding four Israelis. In the West Bank,
gunmen killed two Israeli settlers who had entered a Palestinian
village.
(AP, 7/30/02)

2002 Jul 31, In Israel a bomb
exploded in a crowded cafeteria at Hebrew University during
lunchtime, killing 9 people including 5 Americans and wounding more
than 70. Hamas claimed responsibility. The dead included a peace
activist named Dafna, who was a close friend of Israeli novelist
Avraham Yehoshua. His novel ďA Woman in Israel," translated to
English in 2006, was dedicated to Dafna.
(SFC, 8/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 7/31/03)(Econ, 8/5/06,
p.73)
2002 Jul 31, An Israeli man,
his hands and feet bound, was found shot and killed in his factory
office near the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 8/1/02)

2002 Aug 2, The Israeli army
blew up two buildings with explosives labs and arrested at least 50
Palestinians in house to house searches as troops took control of
Nablus, a city Israel called "the main factory of suicide bombings."
Israelis killed 3 people in Nablus and 3 Palestinians in Gaza
including a woman (85) and a girl (9).
(AP, 8/2/02)(SFC, 8/3/02, p.A1)

2002 Aug 5, Israel announced a
"total ban" on Palestinian travel in much of the West Bank and
sealed off a chunk of the Gaza Strip with tanks in response to
Palestinian attacks on Israelis that killed 13 people over 24 hours.
Israeli helicopters fired missiles at a suspected weapons factory in
Gaza City.
(AP, 8/5/02)(AP, 8/5/07)

2002 Aug 6, Israeli troops
killed the suspected mastermind of a Tel Aviv suicide bombing, while
U.S. diplomats said the United States was considering moving
consular offices out of traditionally Arab east Jerusalem due to
security concerns.
(AP, 8/6/02)
2002 Aug 6, Israel agreed to
buy about 1.75 billion cubic feet of water from Turkey annually for
the next 20 years to alleviate the nation's growing water shortage
and ensure the success of an arms deal with Ankara.
(AP, 8/602)

2002 Aug 7, About 30 Israeli
tanks firing heavy machineguns raided the northern Gaza Strip in a
sweep for militants and troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman.
(AP, 8/7/02)
2002 Aug 7, The Palestinian
Cabinet accepted Israel's proposal for a troop withdrawal from some
areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in exchange for Palestinian
security guarantees, even as Israeli troops hunting terror suspects
killed five Palestinians in three raids.
(AP, 8/7/02)

2002 Aug 8, Israeli troops and
tanks briefly swept into a town in the northern Gaza Strip for the
second time in two days, killing a youth and wounding three others
in a clash with Palestinian stone throwers. Negotiators failed to
reach agreement, but scheduled more talks on a gradual Israeli troop
pullback from some Palestinian areas.
(AP, 8/8/02)

2002 Aug 10, Israeli soldiers
shot dead a Palestinian electricity department worker as he sat in
his city-owned truck and the army expressed its sorrow and said it
had opened an investigation. Gunfire in a Jordan Valley settlement
killed a suspected Palestinian militant and an Israeli woman.
(AP, 8/10/02)

2002 Aug 12, Palestinian
factions met to create a "national unity leadership" to include all
major groups, including militant ones such as Hamas. They endorsed a
continuation of their uprising and rejected language to end attacks
on civilians inside Israel.
(AP, 8/12/02)

2002 Aug 18, Israel agreed to a
partial withdrawal from Palestinian territory in exchange for
reduced tensions in the areas.
(SFC, 8/19/02, p.A1)

2002 Aug 20, Palestinian police
were back on the streets of Bethlehem after Israeli forces left the
town as part of a trial that could lead to further Israeli
withdrawals in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/20/02)
2002 Aug 20, An Israeli soldier
was killed by a Hamas sniper. Hamas vowed to undermine the new
security agreement.
(WSJ, 8/21/02, p.A1)

2002 Aug 21, Israeli troops
blew up two apartment buildings in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, just
hours after undercover forces killed the brother of a radical
Palestinian leader during an arrest raid in the West Bank. Israeli
security officials announced the breakup of a Hamas cell in East
Jerusalem.
(AP, 8/21/02)(SFC, 8/22/02, p.A7)

2002 Aug 26, Israeli troops
arrested Jamal Abdel Salam Abu el-Heijah, leader of Hamas in the
Jenin region in a West Bank raid as Israel's defense minister said a
security deal to ease violence was still in force.
(AP, 8/26/02)

2002 Aug 31, Israeli soldiers
arrested Hasan Yousef, the Islamic militant group Hamas' top
political leader, in the West Bank town of Ramallah. An Israeli
helicopter fired three missiles at a Palestinian car, killing three
men inside and two children standing nearby.
(AP, 8/30/02)

2002 Aug 31, A Palestinian
gunman opened fire in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank,
seriously wounding two people before being shot dead.
(AP, 8/31/02)

2002 Sep 1, Israeli troops shot
dead four Palestinians not far from a Jewish gravesite near the West
Bank city of Hebron, adding to an already bloody weekend in which
seven other Palestinians, including two children, were killed.
(AP, 9/1/02)(SFC, 9/2/02, p.A3)
2002 Sep 1, Israel and Jordan
announced their largest joint project ever, an $800 million pipeline
intended to save the shrinking Dead Sea from environmental
devastation.
(AP, 9/1/02)

2002 Sep 5, Palestinian
fighters blew up an Israeli tank in Gaza, killing the driver
instantly. Another Palestinian, linked to the Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigade, killed an Israeli officer and wounded another soldier
before he was shot dead.
(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A14)

2002 Sep 6, Israel
attacked a factory in the Gaza Strip with missiles fired from
helicopters after a Palestinian "mega" bomb attempt was thwarted a
day earlier.
(AP, 9/6/02)(SFC, 9/6/02, p.A14)
2002 Sep 6, Jews began Rosh
Hashanan at sunset. This ended their year 5762 and began year 5763.
(SFC, 9/7/02, p.A1)

2002 Sep 13, Four Palestinians
were killed in Gaza, including three in an explosion at a home
believed to harbor a bomb workshop. Elsewhere, a Palestinian gunman
died in a firefight with Israeli soldiers.
(AP, 9/13/02)

2002 Sep 14, President Emile
Lahoud said Lebanon will start pumping water from a shared border
river for its southern villages despite Israeli military threats.
(AP, 9/14/02)

2002 Sep 18, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up at a bus stop in the Arab-Israeli
village of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, wounding several people.
(AP, 9/18/02)

2002 Sep 19, A Palestinian blew
himself up on a crowded bus in downtown Tel Aviv, killing at least
five other people and wounding 49. It was the second suicide bombing
in two days after a six-week lull.
(AP, 9/19/02)

2002 Sep 20, Israel tightened
its siege on Yasser Arafat, using tanks to destroy a stairwell in
his compound, digging a deep trench and running coils of barbed wire
around his offices.
(AP, 9/20/02)

2002 Sep 21, Explosions rocked
Yasser Arafat's compound, including one that showered him with
debris, as the Israeli army systematically blew up or bulldozed
nearly every building around him in the Palestinian Authority's
headquarters.
(AP, 9/21/02)

2002 Sep 22, Thousands of
Palestinians, many defying military curfews, poured into West Bank
and Gaza streets to protest Israel's assault on Yasser Arafat's
headquarters, and 5 demonstrators were killed by army fire.
(AP, 9/22/02)(WSJ, 9/23/02, p.A1)

2002 Sep 23, A Palestinian
gunman opened fire on visitors attending Jewish holiday celebrations
In Hebron, killing a man and wounding three of his sons.
(AP, 9/24/02)

2002 Sep 24, Israel
defied a U.N. Security Council demand to end its six-day siege of
Yasser Arafat's devastated West Bank headquarters. 9 Palestinians
were killed in an Israeli strike against alleged munitions factories
and other targets in Gaza City. Israeli troops demolished three
houses of Palestinian terror suspects, while Jewish settler leaders
inaugurated a new Jewish settlement near the Palestinian city of
Nablus.
(AP, 9/24/02)(AP, 9/25/02)

2002 Oct 10, Imre Kertesz (72),
a Hungarian novelist and secular Jew, won the Nobel Prize for
literature. His books included "Fiasco" (1988) and "Kaddish for a
Child Not Born" (1990).
(SFC, 10/11/02, p.A2)

2002 Oct 13, In Israel about
140,000 public workers went on strike to protest government plans to
tax contributions to pension funds.
(AP, 10/13/02)
2002 Oct 13, Israeli troops
backed by tanks and a helicopter entered the Rafah refugee camp
hunting for tunnels used to smuggle weapons and drugs into the Gaza
Strip. Two Palestinians were killed and 28 wounded.
(AP, 10/13/02)
2002 Oct 13, A Palestinian
militant, whose clan has been targeted previously by Israeli
security forces, was killed when a public telephone exploded in his
hand. He was one of six Palestinians to die in a day of violence.
(AP, 10/13/02)

2002 Oct 15, Yaacov "Zeev"
Farkas (b.1923), called the founder of the political cartoonist's
art in Israel, died. He was born in Hungary and survived the Nazi
concentration camp at Dachau.
(AP, 10/16/02)(SFC, 10/17/02, p.A28)

2002 Oct 17, Israeli tanks
fired artillery shells and machine guns after coming under attack by
anti-tank missiles, killing at least 6 Palestinians and wounding
more than 40 in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.
(AP, 10/17/02)(SFC, 10/18/02, p.A18)

2002 Oct 21, A bus bombing near
Hadera killed 14 Israelis, along with two attackers. Israel held off
on immediate retaliation, but troops next day destroyed the homes of
a suicide bomber and a suspected militant.
(AP, 10/22/02)(SFC, 10/22/02, p.A1)

2002 Oct 27, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew up as Israeli soldiers were shooting him,
killing three people and himself at a gas station just outside
Ariel, one of the largest Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The
18 people injured included several soldiers. Hours later, Israeli
troops shot and killed two armed Palestinian militants in the nearby
Palestinian city of Nablus
(AP, 10/27/02)

2002 Nov 1, Israel Amir (99),
the first commander of the Israeli air force (1948), died in a Tel
Aviv hospital.
(AP, 11/2/02)(SFC, 11/2/02, p.A22)

2002 Oct 30, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's broad-based coalition collapsed when Cabinet
ministers from the moderate Labor Party resigned in a dispute over
funding for Jewish settlements.
(AP, 10/30/03)
2002 Oct 30, A Palestinian
gunman killed two teenage girls and a woman in a Jewish settlement
in the West Bank before being shot dead in a firefight with soldiers
and residents.
(AP, 10/30/02)

2002 Nov 4, Two Palestinians,
including a Hamas militant wanted by Israel, were killed when their
car exploded in the middle of the street in the West Bank city of
Nablus.
(AP, 11/4/02)

2002 Nov 5, Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon dissolved Parliament and called early elections for
February, after he failed to rebuild his crumbling government.
Ex-premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that he accepts PM Ariel
Sharon's offer to serve as foreign minister until early elections
are held.
(AP, 11/5/02)
2002 Nov 5, Israeli soldiers
came under fire and responded by killing a Palestinian and injuring
16 others in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 11/5/02)

2002 Nov 6, Benjamin Netanyahu
was approved as Israel's foreign minister, bringing him into the
Cabinet of the man he seeks to succeed, Ariel Sharon.
(AP, 11/6/02)

2002 Nov 6, A Palestinian
laborer opened fire in a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip where
he worked, killing his employer and another Israeli before being
shot dead.
(AP, 11/6/02)

2002 Nov 9, Iyad Sawalha, a
senior member of the militant Islamic Jihad group, was killed in an
overnight army operation in the West Bank.
(AP, 11/9/02)

2002 Nov 10, A car carrying two
Palestinians exploded as Israeli police moved to stop the vehicle
near Israel's border with the West Bank.
(AP, 11/10/02)

2002 Nov 10, A Palestinian
gunman crawled under a security fence at the Kibbutz Metzer communal
farm, burst into a home and shot dead a mother and her two children
as she was reading them a bedtime story. The gunman then killed two
more Israelis before escaping in the dark.
(AP, 11/11/02)

2002 Nov 14, Israeli troops
captured the alleged mastermind of a shooting attack on an Israeli
kibbutz in his West Bank hideout, and seized suspected weapons
makers in the deepest raid into Gaza City in two years.
(AP, 11/14/02)

2002 Nov 17, Israeli statesman
Abba Eban (87) died. He helped persuade the world to approve
creation of the Jewish state and dominated Israeli diplomacy for
decades.
(AP, 11/17/02)

2002 Nov 17, Tawfiq Fukra (23),
an Israeli Arab accused of trying to hijack an El Al Airlines
flight, wanted to copy the September 11 suicide attacks on the
United States and fly the aircraft into a public building in Tel
Aviv.
(Reuters, 11/18/02)

2002 Nov 19, Five Palestinians
died when Israeli soldiers swept through the West Bank town of
Tulkarem, one a leading militant and another a teenager who had
climbed on top of an Israeli armored vehicle.
(AP, 11/19/02)

2002 Nov 21, A Palestinian man
wearing a bomb belt blew himself up on a Jerusalem city bus packed
with high school students and soldiers, killing 11 passengers and
wounding dozens in a morning rush hour attack. Four of the victims
were aged 8 to 16.
(AP, 11/21/02)

2002 Nov 22, A senior U.N.
official from Britain was shot and killed during an exchange of fire
between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the West Bank
refugee camp of Jenin.
(AP, 11/22/02)

2002 Nov 25, Israeli troops
shot and killed an 8-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus as hundreds
of youths ignored a curfew and threw stones at soldiers on their way
home from school. Israeli troops and armored vehicles pulled out of
Bethlehem.
(AP, 11/25/02)

2002 Nov 28, Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon easily won re-election as the Likud Party leader,
defeating his hawkish foreign minister by positioning himself as a
centrist in a tactic that could help him in January elections
against the Labor Party's dovish Amram Mitzna.
(AP, 11/29/02)
2002 Nov 28, A shooting attack
in northern Israel killed 6 Israelis. Two Palestinian gunmen opened
fire on a Likud Party office crowded with voters casting ballots in
a leadership race and also attacked passengers at a nearby bus
terminal in northern Israel.
(AP, 11/28/02)(SFC, 11/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Nov 28, In Kenya 3 suicide
bombers attacked an Israeli-owned hotel, killing 13 other people. At
least two missiles were fired at, but missed, an Israeli airliner
taking off from the Mombasa airport.
(AP, 11/28/02)(SFC, 11/29/02, p.A1)(SFC,
11/30/02, p.A1)

2002 Nov 29, Israeli troops
blew up the homes of two Palestinian gunmen who attacked an office
of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party during a primary vote,
killing six Israelis and wounding more than 20.
(AP, 11/29/02)

2002 Nov 30, A 16-year-old
Palestinian boy was shot and killed on his way home from school east
of Gaza city, and another was wounded.
(AP, 11/30/02)
2002 Nov 30, Israeli troops
shot dead one Palestinian and a second Palestinian man died under
the rubble of one of the three homes the soldiers demolished in an
overnight operation in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 12/1/02)

2002 Nov, Egypt state
television planned to air a 41-part series titled "Horseman Without
a Horse," about a journalistís efforts to uncover the truth behind
an alleged Jewish plot to conquer the world. "The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion" were 1st printed in 1897. They were copied from a
novel by Hermann Goedsche and believed to be concocted by the secret
police of Czar Nicholas II. Goedsche claimed a secret group of
rabbis were plotting to take over the world. His story was based on
Maurice Jolyís "Dialogues in Hell Between Machiavelli and
Montesquieu."
(SFC, 10/24/02, p.A9)

2002 Dec 2, Israeli troops shot
dead a Palestinian gunman trying to enter a Jewish settlement in the
Gaza Strip, and a Palestinian teenager was killed when a mob of
stone throwers clashed with troops in the West Bank town of Jenin.
(AP, 12/2/02)

2002 Dec 3, An Israeli soldier
in Ramallah shot and killed a 95-year-old Palestinian woman as her
taxi tried a back road to go around an Israeli checkpoint.
(SFC, 12/4/02, p.A14)

2002 Dec 4, Israeli soldiers
killed two suspected Islamic militants in a gun battle in a West
Bank village, and Israeli helicopters fired missiles on a
Palestinian government complex in the Gaza Strip, killing a security
guard and injuring five people.
(AP, 12/4/02)

2002 Dec 6, Ten Palestinians,
including two U.N. employees, were killed in chaotic battles that
erupted when Israeli troops, tanks and helicopter gunships poured
into a Gaza Strip refugee camp, searching for a fugitive militant
allegedly involved in a fatal bombing.
(AP, 12/6/02)

2002 Dec 8, Israeli soldiers
killed a Palestinian woman and wounded her 3 children at the Tel
sultan refugee camp near the settlement of Rafiah Yam.
(SFC, 12/9/02, p.A12)

2002 Dec 30, Israeli soldiers
killed three Palestinians, including a gunman, while Israel's
Supreme Court ruled that reserve soldiers have no right to refuse
service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Border policemen Shahar
Botbeka and Denis Alhazov and 2 others abducted several Hebron
residents, among them 17-year-old Amran Abu Hamadiya, and took them
for a ride in their jeep. They abused the men and beat them with
truncheons and rifles. They hurled Abu Hamadiya out of the moving
vehicle, causing his death. In 2008 Botbeka and Alhazov were
convicted of manslaughter for their part in the kidnapping and
wrongful death of Hamadiya.
(AP,
12/30/02)(www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017498.html)

2002 A stone ossuary, looted
from a Jerusalem cave, was found by a French scholar with an Aramaic
inscription that read "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." In
2003 the stone ossuary was declared a fake. In 2008 Nina Burleigh
authored ďUnholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed & Forgery
in the Holy Land." In 2012 antiquities collector Oded Golan was
acquitted of forging the box. A judge ruled that it was impossible
to unequivocally prove the artifacts were forged.
(WSJ, 10/20/08, p.A17)(SFC, 3/15/12, p.A2)

2002 Israel closed to
Palestinians the West Bank section of Route 443 linking Jerusalem
and Tel Aviv, after militants shot at Israeli vehicles on the
highway and killed several motorists.
(AP, 12/30/09)

2003 Jan 1, In Gaza 3
Palestinian boys were shot and killed by soldiers after scaling a
fence around Jewish settlements.
(AP, 1/2/03)

2003 Jan 2, A Palestinian
gunman was killed several hours after he tried to shoot an Israeli
couple and then holed up inside their house in the Israeli village
of Maor.
(AP, 1/2/03)

2003 Jan 7, Israeli troops
exchanged fire with Palestinian militiamen for 4 hours, killing 3
gunmen before withdrawing from the outskirts of a refugee camp. The
Israeli government put new restrictions on travel by Palestinians.
(AP, 1/7/03)(SFC, 1/8/03, p.A11)

2003 Jan 12, Three missiles
fired from an Israeli helicopter missed their apparent target,
Islamic militants riding in a car, and killed two 15 year-old
Palestinian boys, seriously wounding another teen. In Israel 7
Palestinians, two other Arab attackers and two Israelis were killed
in raids and infiltrations.
(AP, 1/13/03)(SFC, 1/13/03, p.A3)

2003 Jan 13, Two Palestinians
threw grenades at an Israeli bus in the Gaza Strip and were shot
dead by Israeli troops, and an Islamic Jihad activist was killed in
an explosion in the West Bank.
(AP, 1/14/03)

2003 Jan 14, Hundreds of
American soldiers have arrived in Israel for joint maneuvers with
anti-missile defenses, aimed at protecting against any Iraqi strikes
if the United States attacks Iraq.
(AP, 1/15/03)

2003 Jan 15, Israel shut down
two Palestinian universities in the divided town of Hebron, while
Israeli soldiers shot and killed three Palestinians in West Bank
clashes.
(AP, 1/15/03)

2003 Jan 17, Two Palestinian
gunmen infiltrated the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, killing an
Israeli man as he opened the door of his home and wounding three
other people. One gunman was shot and killed in the attack.
(AP, 1/17/03)

2003 Jan 18, Israeli soldiers
tracked and killed a 2nd Palestinian assailant who fled after an
attack on a Jewish outpost in the West Bank. The two slain
Palestinians had earlier killed one Israeli and injured three others
the previous night.
(AP, 1/18/03)

2003 Jan 28, In Israel PM Ariel
Sharon's Likud won with 38 seats, but still needed coalition
partners to reach a 61-spot majority in the 120-seat parliament.
(AP, 1/29/03)(AP, 2/4/03)
2003 Jan 28, An explosion
leveled a Gaza City house, killing three Palestinians, including a
teenage brother and sister, and wounding 11. In Jenin four
Palestinians were killed in battles with Israeli troops.
(AP, 1/28/03)

2003 Feb 3, Israeli tank fire
killed two Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip on Monday, and
soldiers arrested a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah group on the
West Bank.
(AP, 2/3/03)

2003 Feb 5, The Israeli
military demolished the home of a Palestinian militant in the Gaza
Strip, killing an elderly woman inside. Israeli troops killed a
total of 5 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
(AP, 2/5/03)(WSJ, 2/7/03, p.A1)

2003 Feb 9, Three Palestinians
were killed when their explosives-laden car blew up outside an
Israeli army post after crashing into a cement block barrier. In
secret talks last week Israel offered the Palestinians a gradual
cease-fire.
(AP, 2/9/03)(SSFC, 2/9/03, p.A22)

2003 Feb 11, Israeli troops
killed an armed Palestinian in the Gaza Strip, and Israel imposed a
blanket closure on the Palestinian areas during the Muslim Hajj
because of warnings of possible attacks. Israeli soldiers killed an
8-year-old boy in the West Bank and an Israeli was killed by a
Palestinian gunman in Bethlehem.
(AP, 2/11/03)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A13)

2003 Feb 16, The Israeli
Cabinet voted to allow about 17,000 Ethiopians with Jewish roots to
come to Israel, lifting immigration restrictions on the group known
as Falash Mura.
(AP, 2/16/03)

2003 Feb 17, Israeli
soldiers killed a top Hamas fugitive in a roadside ambush. In
another operation they raided a stronghold of the militant Islamic
group, shooting dead 2 Palestinians and blowing up the house of a
suspected bombmaker.
(AP, 2/17/03)

2003 Feb 19, Israeli
tanks and soldiers battled Palestinian militants in the streets of
Gaza City before dawn in violence that left 11 Palestinians dead,
including a suicide bomber who tried to blow up a tank. Hamas fired
4 Qassam rockets into Sderot in retaliation.
(AP, 2/19/03)(SFC, 2/20/03, A6)

2003 Feb 20, Israeli
soldiers killed a Palestinian and carried out house-to-house
searches in the West Bank and divided the Gaza Strip into three
parts, restricting the movement of more than 1 million Palestinians.
(AP, 2/20/03)

2003 Mar 2, Israeli
troops backed by tanks and helicopters raided a Gaza Strip town,
killing two Palestinians in fierce fighting and demolishing an
apartment building and the exterior wall of a hospital.
(AP, 3/2/03)

2003 Mar 3, Israeli
troops raided a Gaza refugee camp and arrested Hamas co-founder
Mohammed Taha. He founded Hamas in 1987, along with the group's
spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, and three other senior
clerics. Israel released Taha 14 months later. 8 Palestinians, among
them a pregnant woman, were killed in clashes in the camp.
(AP, 3/3/03)(AP, 3/3/08)

2003 Mar 4, Israeli
troops killed one Palestinian and wounded another in an shootout at
an Internet cafe in the West Bank.
(AP, 3/4/03)

2003 Mar 5, In Israel a
Palestinian suicide bombing, the 1st in two months, tore apart a
packed Israeli bus in the port city of Haifa, killing 14 Israelis
and an American teenager, and wounding about 55.
(AP, 3/5/03)(AP, 3/5/08)

2003 Mar 8, An Israeli
helicopter missile strike killed Ibrahim Makadmeh (51), the top
commander of Hamas' military wing and three other militants in a car
in the Gaza Strip. Hamas vowed revenge; the Israeli army promised to
strike the militants again.
(AP, 3/8/03)(AP, 3/8/08)

2003 Mar 11, Israeli
troops fired a tank shell at a 3-story apartment building, then
razed it, killing a Palestinian gunman who several hours earlier had
attacked an Israeli army patrol.
(AP, 3/11/03)

2003 Mar 16, In the Gaza Strip
Rachel Corrie (23) of Washington State was crushed to death by and
Israeli Army bulldozer as she tried to block the demolition of
Palestinian homes. On Aug 28, 2012, an Israeli court cleared the
military of any responsibility for her death.
(SFC, 3/17/03, p.A1)(AFP, 8/28/12)

2003 Mar 30, In Netanya,
Israel, Rami Ghanem (20), a Palestinian suicide bomber, exploded
near the London Cafť and at least 30 people were injured. The
Islamic Jihad called the attack "Palestine's gift to the heroic
people of Iraq."
(SFC, 3/31/03, p.A1)(AP, 3/30/04)

2003 Apr 3, Israeli forces
evicted some 1,500-3,000 Palestinian men from their homes in the
Tulkarem Refugee Camp and told them to stay out for 3 days. Several
Palestinians were killed in Gaza and West Bank raids.
(SFC, 4/4/03, p.A8)(WSJ, 4/4/03, p.A1)

2003 Apr 11, Israeli troops
critically wounded Thomas Hurndall (21), a British peace activist,
as he tried to remove 2 children from a line of fire outside the
Rafah refugee camp. Hurndall died after 9 months in a vegetative
state. In 2005 an Israeli military court convicted an Israeli
soldier of manslaughter in the killing Hurndall.
(SFC, 4/12/03, p.A6)(AP, 1/14/04)(AP, 6/27/05)

2003 Apr 13, Israelís PM Ariel
Sharon in a published interview said Israel will hand over some
Jewish settlements for peace, but the Palestinians must give up
their demand that refugees be allowed to return to their former
homes.
(AP, 4/13/03)

2003 Apr 15,
Israeli-Palestinian clashes in Gaza and the West Bank left 6 people
dead.
(SFC, 4/16/03, p.A7)

2003 Apr 19, The Israeli army
killed 5 Palestinians and wounded around 70, many of them civilians,
in a raid on the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Near the West
Bank city of Qalqilya, soldiers shot dead a Palestinian who threw a
petrol bomb at them.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 Apr 19, Nazeh Darwazeh
(45), a cameraman with Associated Press TV News, was killed while
covering skirmishes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians who
were throwing rocks and firebombs. He died of a bullet wound to the
head and Palestinian witnesses said he was shot by an Israeli
soldier.
(AP, 4/19/03)

2003 May 1, Israeli troops
raided a Hamas stronghold and exchanged fire with dozens of masked
gunmen. At least 13 Palestinians were killed, including two boys
ages 2 and 13. 2 Palestinian militants were killed in the West Bank.
(AP, 5/1/03)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A8)

2003 May 2, James Miller (34),
a British journalist filming a documentary in the southern
Palestinian city of Rafah, was shot and killed during an exchange of
fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinians. In 2006 a British
jury ruled that the shooting was an act of murder. In 2009 Israel
agreed to pay about $2 million to the family Miller.
(AP, 5/2/04)(AP, 4/6/06)(AP, 2/1/09)

2003 May 7, In Israel a Hamas
militant was killed when a bomb exploded in his West Bank apartment.
In northern Gaza a Hamas member was killed near a Jewish settlement.
In the southern Gaza Strip a Palestinian toddler was killed from
Israeli gunfire.
(SFC, 5/8/03, p.A17)

2003 May 11, A Palestinian
gunmen killed an Israeli motorist in the West Bank and Israeli
troops raided a Palestinian town. Palestinian leaders put
aside reservations to parts of the US-developed plan for peace and
PM Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was ready to get started on it.
(AP, 5/11/03)

2003 May 12, Israel sealed the
Gaza Strip, imposing the most sweeping restrictions in years, and
its troops killed three Palestinians in clashes there.
(AP, 5/12/03)

2003 May 14, An Israeli
helicopter fired a missile into a crowd in a refugee camp in the
Gaza Strip, wounding 30 people and killed three Palestinian
policemen, after 10 Israeli soldiers were wounded nearby in a mortar
attack.
(AP, 5/13/03)

2003 May 15, Israeli troops
killed 5 people including 3 youths during a raid at Beit Hanoun
aimed to stop Palestinian fighters from firing rockets into Israel.
(SFC, 5/16/03, p.A10)

2003 May 17, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up in the West Bank city of Hebron,
killing an Israeli man and his pregnant wife.
(AP, 5/17/04)

2003 May 18, A Hamas suicide
bomber killed seven passengers on a Jerusalem bus, while a second
bomber blew himself up on the city's outskirts. Israeli PM Ariel
Sharon postponed a trip to Washington. Israeli troops in the Gaza
Strip shot and killed a Palestinian man. On June 3, 2010, Steve
Averbach (44), who had been hit by shrapnel on the bus and paralyzed
from the neck down, died as a result of complications from his
wounds.
(AP, 5/18/03)(AP, 6/4/10)

2003 May 19, A Palestinian
riding a bicycle blew himself up near an Israeli army jeep. A female
suicide bomber detonated at the entrance to a shopping mall in Afula
and killed 3 others in the 5th suicide bombing in 48 hours.
(SFC, 5/20/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/19/04)

2003 May 21, Israeli troops
shot to death 2 Palestinians including a mother of 8 during a clash
at the West Bank village of Qarawat Bani Zeid.
(SFC, 5/22/03, p.A3)

2003 May 23, Israel's PM Ariel
Sharon agreed to work with a US-backed peace plan to end 32 months
of fighting and to set up a Palestinian state.
(AP, 5/23/03)

2003 May 25, Israel's Cabinet
approved a US-backed Middle East peace plan, recognizing for the
first time the Palestinians' right to establish an independent state
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/25/03)

2003 May 26, PM Sharon said
Israel must end its occupation of Palestinian lands. Sharon declared
in a speech to his Likud Party that he was determined to reach a
peace deal and end 36 years of rule over the Palestinians.
(SFC, 5/27/03, p.A1)(AP, 5/26/08)

2003 May, In Iraq a Jewish
archive was found when US troops looking for weapons of mass
destruction got a tip to check out the basement of a building of the
Mukhabarat, Saddam's secret police. In a flooded basement they found
books, photos and papers floated in the murky water. Accumulated
over the years were photos, parchments and cases to hold Torah
scrolls; a Jewish religious book published in 1568; 50 copies of a
children's primer in Hebrew and Arabic; books in Arabic and English,
books printed in Baghdad, Warsaw and Venice, the lost heritage of
what was once one of the largest Jewish communities in the Middle
East, dating to the 6th century B.C. The collection was saved and
soon taken to the US for preservation.
(AP, 1/17/10)

2003 Jun 1, The Israeli
military eased travel restrictions and allowed thousands of
Palestinian workers to enter the country in an effort to lower
tensions and build goodwill.
(AP, 6/1/03)

2003 Jun 3, Israel released
about 100 prisoners, a goodwill gesture ahead of a Mideast peace
summit with U.S. President George W. Bush.
(AP, 6/3/03)

2003 Jun 4, In Jordan Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon pledged to dismantle illegal settlements
in Palestinian areas, while the new Palestinian leader renounced all
terrorism against Israel. Both steps were sought by President Bush
as he brought the two sides together in a bid to advance Middle East
peace.
(AP, 6/4/03)(SFC, 6/4/03, p.A1)

2003 Jun 8, Three Palestinians
disguised as Israeli military sneaked into an army post and killed 4
soldiers before being killed by troops in the first major attack on
Israelis since last week's Mideast summit. Another Israeli soldier
was killed in Hebron. 6 Palestinians died in the violence.
(AP, 6/8/03)(SFC, 6/9/03, p.A1)

2003 Jun 11, A Palestinian blew
himself up on a Jerusalem bus and killed 16 other people. Israel
retaliated with 2 rocket strikes that killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza
City.
(AP, 6/11/03)(AP, 6/11/08)

2003 Jun 12, Israeli
helicopters fired rockets at two cars carrying Hamas activists in
Gaza killing seven people, including a young child, and wounding
29. The first strike killed two low-level Hamas activists,
ages 22 and 24, from a unit that guards city streets.
(AP, 6/12/03)

2003 Jun 13, Israel decided to
target top Hamas leaders, including founder Sheik Ahmed, saying it
would strike political as well as military leaders who targeted
Israel with terrorism. An Israeli helicopter attack killed one Hamas
member and injured 22 Palestinians including 8 children.
(SFC, 6/14/03, p.A1)(AP, 6/13/08)

2003 Jun 18, Israel agreed to
curb its "track-and-kill" operations against Palestinian militants
in a deal struck with US officials to help them salvage a new peace
plan torn by violence.
(AP, 6/18/03)

2003 Jun 21, The Israeli army
killed Abdullah Kawasme, a local Hamas leader, in the West Bank town
of Hebron.
(AP, 6/22/03)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.A9)

2003 Jun 24, Israel arrested
more than 130 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Hebron,
targeting Hamas as the Palestinian government awaited word on
whether the Islamic militant group would agree to a cease-fire.
(AP, 6/24/03)

2003 Jun 27, Israeli and
Palestinian leaders agreed for Israel to begin withdrawing forces
from areas of the Gaza Strip and returning security control to
Palestinian officers. In 33 months of the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, 2,414 people have been killed on the Palestinian side and
806 on the Israeli side.
(AP, 6/27/03)(SFC, 6/28/03, p.A1)

2003 Jun 28, An Islamic Jihad
leader announced that the group accepted a conditional three-month
halt to attacks on Israelis ó the first open confirmation of the
deal from a militant leader.
(AP, 6/28/03)

2003 Jul 31, The Israeli
parliament voted to block Palestinians who marry Israelis from
becoming Israeli citizens of residents. The legislation was enacted
for one year. In 2006 the Supreme Court rejected petitions to
overturn the law.
(SFC, 8/1/03, p.A20)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.47)

2003 Aug 1, In Israel Yehiya
Farhan and a 16-year-old girlfriend lured Dana Bennett (18) into
their vehicle. Farhan beat her to death and concealed the body in
the northern hills. Months earlier the couple had picked up Czech
hitch hiker Sylvia Molrova (27), killed her and dumped her body in a
remote spot. In 2009 Israeli detectives arrested Farhan. He was
already in custody on suspicion of raping an Australian tourist when
a tip led homicide detectives to him. In 2010 Farhan (34) was
sentenced to 102 years in prison. Farhan's female accomplice helped
police with their investigation and was sentenced to a shorter
prison term in a plea bargain.
(www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3721705,00.html)(AP, 7/21/10)

2003 Aug 8, Hezbollah
guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in a disputed Lebanese border
region for the first time in eight months, drawing Israeli
airstrikes and artillery fire.
(AP, 8/8/03)
2003 Aug 8, A West Bank raid on
a bomb lab by Israeli troops killed 2 members of the Islamic
militant group Hamas. An Israeli soldier also was killed.
(AP, 8/9/03)

2003 Aug 19, A Hamas bus
bombing in Jerusalem killed 22 people, including as many as six
children.
(AP, 8/20/03)(AP, 8/19/04)

2003 Aug 21, Israel killed
Ismail Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas political leader, in a missile
strike, retaliating for a suicide bombing of a bus in which 20
people died including six children. Abu Shanab was widely
regarded as a moderate in the group, and served as a liaison with
Abbas during the prime minister's efforts to persuade Hamas to halt
attacks. Palestinian militants abandoned a two-month-old truce after
Israel killed the Hamas leader.
(AP, 8/21/03)(AP, 8/21/08)

2003 Aug 22, Israeli troops
killed a Palestinian militant and wounded two others in a shootout
Friday at a West Bank hospital.
(AP, 8/22/03)

2003 Aug 24, Palestinian
militants carried out their deepest rocket strike against Israel. A
Qassam-2 rocket, a makeshift weapon produced by the militant Islamic
group Hamas, landed near a lifeguard station on Zikim beach with no
damages or casualties. Israeli missile fire killed 4 Palestinian
militants in Gaza City.
(Reuters, 8/24/03)(SFC, 8/25/03, p.A1)

2003 Aug 30, An Israeli
helicopter gunship fired several missiles at a Palestinian car
driving through a refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing
two Hamas militants.
(AP, 8/30/03)

2003 Sep 1, Israeli helicopters
fired four missiles at a car carrying Hamas militants, killing at
least one of them and wounding 26 on a crowded Gaza City.
(AP, 9/1/03)

2003 Sep 5, Israeli commandos
killed a Hamas bombmaker in a firefight and pulverized the West Bank
apartment building in which he had been hiding.
(AP, 9/5/04)

2003 Sep 6, An Israeli missile
strike on Gaza City lightly wounded Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed
Yassin, the highest-ranking member of the militant group to be
targeted by Israel in recent weeks.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 6, Palestinian Prime
Minister Mahmoud Abbas, whose support was considered essential to
any prospect of peace success, submitted his resignation.
(AP, 9/6/03)
2003 Sep 6, The European Union
said it will declare all wings of the militant Palestinian group
Hamas a terrorist organization and freeze its assets after dozens of
deadly attacks in Israel.
(AP, 9/6/03)

2003 Sep 8, Ariel Sharon flew
to New Delhi for the first-ever visit to India by an Israeli prime
minister, hoping to cement blossoming defense and trade ties.
(AP, 9/8/03)

2003 Sep 9, Israeli troops
killed three Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, in an arrest
raid in the West Bank city of Hebron, as Israel signaled both
reluctant acquiescence and disapproval of the Palestinians'
candidate for prime minister. In Jerusalem twin suicide bombings, 5
hours apart, killed 16 Israelis. One suicide bomber chose a
nightspot packed with young Israelis, the other a bus stop where
soldiers were waiting for their ride homes.
(AP, 9/9/03)

2003 Sep 10, Israeli warplanes
flattened the home of senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar with a
half-ton bomb, wounding him and killing his eldest son and a
bodyguard, in retaliation for twin suicide bombings that killed 15
Israelis a day earlier.
(AP, 9/10/03)

2003 Sep 11, The Israeli
security Cabinet decided in principle to authorize the expulsion of
Yasser Arafat. The Cabinet also decided that the construction of the
security fence between Israel and the West Bank will be accelerated.
(AP, 9/11/03)(SFC, 9/12/03, p.A3)

2003 Sep 12, The Palestinians
urged the UN Security Council to demand that Israel not expel Yasser
Arafat and halt any threats to his safety.
(AP, 9/12/03)

2003 Sep 16, The US vetoed a UN
resolution demanding that Israel not harm or expel Arafat.
(WSJ, 9/17/03, p.A1)

2003 Sep 25, Israeli troops
killed 4 Islamic militants, including a senior fugitive, in
gunbattles in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. One soldier was killed
and six were wounded in the fighting.
(AP, 9/25/03)

2003 Sep 27, A Palestinian
militant was killed when a bomb he was making blew up on as Israel
maintained a high alert over a New Year holiday weekend.
(Reuters, 9/27/03)

2003 Sep 28, Israeli and
Palestinian fatalities over the last 3 years totaled some 3,277 with
860 on the Israeli side and 2,417 Palestinian dead. An additional 60
Palestinians were killed by militants for informing to Israel.
(SSFC, 9/28/03, p.A14)

2003 Oct 4, In Haifa, Israel,
Hanadi Taysser Darajat (29), a female Palestinian lawyer, blew
herself up in a crowded Mediterranean beach restaurant, killing 21
people including 4 children. A brother and cousin, Jihad terrorists,
had been killed in June. Her suicide inspired a piece of
installation art in 2004 at the Stockholm Museum titled "Snow White
and the Madness of Truth."
(SFC, 10/11/03, p.A7)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.D6)(AP,
10/4/04)(LSA, Fall/06, p.32)

2003 Oct 5, Israeli warplanes
bombed the Ein Saheb base northwest of Damascus, Syria, in
retaliation for a suicide bombing at a Haifa restaurant. Israeli
military called it an Islamic Jihad training base. Residents later
told the Associated Press the camp was abandoned years ago.
(AP, 10/5/03)(AP, 10/6/03)

2003 Oct 10, Israel sent dozens
of tanks into a Gaza refugee camp to destroy tunnels allegedly used
by Palestinians to smuggle weapons. Israeli forces killed seven
Palestinians, including an eight-year-old boy, in the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/10/03)(Reuters, 10/10/03)

2003 Oct 24, Palestinian
militants cut through a fence and crept up on the army base inside
the Netzarim settlement in Gaza. The militants entered the barracks
and shot soldiers as they slept, killing three including two women,
and wounding two others.
(AP, 10/26/03)

2003 Oct 26, In the largest
demolition of Palestinian Authority buildings in Gaza in 3 years,
the Israeli army blew up 3 apartment towers in retaliation for a
deadly settlement attack.
(AP, 10/26/03)

2003 Oct 27, Hezbollah
guerrillas shelled Israeli positions in southern Lebanon for the
first time in two months, wounding an Israeli soldier and triggering
Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire. The Israeli positions
were in Chebaa Farms, which Lebanon and Syria say belongs to
Lebanon. The UN says the area is Syrian and that Syria and Israel
should negotiate its fate. Israel captured the Chebaa Farms area
from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war
(AP, 10/27/03)(AP, 10/30/03)

2003 Oct 29, Lenslet, an
Israeli start-up, has developed a processor that uses optics instead
of silicon, enabling it to compute at the speed of light.
(Reuters, 10/29/03)

2003 Oct, Israel approved a
plan to spend at least $56 million to expand settlements on the
occupied Golan Heights.
(AP, 12/31/03)

2003 Nov 2, More than 6,000
Palestinian laborers crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on as
Israel slightly eased restrictions that had prevented them from
reaching their workplaces for more than a month.
(AP, 11/2/03)

2003 Nov 3, Israel's Minister
of the Environment said the Dead Sea is dying, and only a major
engineering effort can save it.
(AP, 11/4/03)
2003 Nov 3, A suicide bomber,
Sabih Abu Saud (16), blew himself up near an army checkpoint in the
West Bank, killing himself but causing no other casualties.
(AP, 11/3/03)(SFC, 11/4/03, p.A10)
2003 Nov 3, The EU condemned
lingering anti-Jewish bias it said was reflected in a new survey,
which found that many Europeans see Israel as a threat to world
peace.
(AP, 11/3/03)

2003 Nov 13, Palestinian and
Israeli officials said they expect their leaders to meet for peace
talks, possibly within 10 days.
(AP, 11/13/03)

2003 Nov 14, In Israel 4 former
security chiefs warned that the country is headed for disaster
unless PM Ariel Sharon reverses course and moves to settle the
conflict with the Palestinians.
(AP, 11/14/03)

2003 Nov 18, A Palestinian
gunman, his rifle wrapped in a prayer mat, walked to a West Bank
checkpoint and killed two Israeli soldiers at close range.
(AP, 11/18/03)

2003 Nov 19, A Jordanian truck
driver fired on a crowd of tourists crossing into Israel, killing
one and wounding four, in an attack near the Red Sea resort of
Eilat. The gunman was killed by Israeli security personnel.
(AP, 11/19/03)

2003 Nov 22, In Israel gunmen
shot and killed 2 private Israeli guards at a construction site for
the disputed barrier near Jerusalem.
(SSFC, 11/23/03, p.A17)

2003 Nov 26, Israeli troops in
the Gaza Strip killed 2 Palestinians and wounded one after the
soldiers disturbed a group of men apparently setting up an ambush on
a road used by Jewish settlers.
(AP, 11/26/03)

2003 Nov 30, Some 200
Palestinians attacked Palestinian negotiators traveling to Geneva
for the signing ceremony of symbolic deal, reached by former Israeli
and Palestinian negotiators, that would establish a Palestinian
state with unprecedented concessions by both sides.
(AP, 11/30/03)

2003 Dec 1, Dignitaries from
around the world, including former Pres. Jimmy Carter, gathered in
Geneva to sign a draft peace accord, called the Geneva Accords,
drawn up between Israeli and Palestinian activists.
(SFC, 12/1/03, p.A1)
2003 Dec 1, Israeli troops
launched a sweeping raid on Ramallah, killing a 9-year-old boy and 3
Hamas gunmen and leaving 60 people homeless after blowing up their
apartment building.
(AP, 12/1/03)

2003 Dec 2, Israeli troops
killed an armed Palestinian trying to flee in the West Bank town of
Jenin.
(AP, 12/2/03)

2003 Dec 3, It was reported
that Syria's president had agreed to a proposal to halt violence
along Israel's northern border if Israel promises to end flights
over Lebanon and not attack its territory.
(AP, 12/4/03)

2003 Dec 4, Palestinians opened
formal talks in Egypt aimed at forging a cease-fire they hope will
induce Israel to halt its attacks on militants and lead to renewed
peace negotiations.
(AP, 12/4/03)(WSJ, 12/5/03, p.A1)

2003 Dec 5, Israeli military
allowed a market in the divided West Bank city of Hebron to open for
the first time in more than a year.
(AP, 12/5/03)
2003 Dec 5, The Israeli
military shot and killed two Palestinians, armed with grenades and
an explosive device, crawling toward a security barrier separating
the Gaza Strip from Israel.
(AP, 12/6/03)

2003 Dec 18, Israel's PM Sharon
said that if talks with Palestinians failed, Israel would
unilaterally withdraw from some settlements in order to establish a
more defensible border.
(SFC, 12/19/03, p.A17)

2003 Dec 20, The third year of
fighting between Israelis and Palestinians saw a decline in the
number of people killed, according to an AP count. Violence claimed
nearly 800 lives in 2003.
(AP, 12/20/03)

2003 Dec 21, Israeli troops
conducted a series of raids in the West Bank city of Nablus,
arresting Hamas leader Adnan Asfour and killing a 5-year-old
Palestinian boy.
(AP, 12/21/03)

2003 Dec 23, An Israeli raid on
the Rafah refugee camp killed 9 Palestinians and left over 40
wounded in the worst violence in the Gaza Strip in two months. Hours
earlier Israel lost its first two soldiers in a month of relative
calm.
(AP, 12/23/03)(AP, 12/24/03)

2003 Dec 25, Israeli troops
shot and killed a Palestinian man carrying explosives toward a
Jewish settlement in Gaza.
(AP, 12/25/03)
2003 Dec 25, Israeli helicopter
gunships killed a senior Islamic militant and at least four other
people in a missile strike on a car in Gaza City.
(Reuters, 12/25/03)
2003 Dec 25, A suicide bombing
killed four Israelis near a bus stop outside Tel Aviv. The victims
were identified as 3 soldiers and a 17-year-old Israeli girl. At
least 13 other people were wounded. The PFLP identified the bomber
as Said Hanani (18) from the village of Beit Furik.
(AP, 12/26/03)(SFC, 12/26/03, p.A1)

2003 Dec 26, Hamas, the Islamic
group responsible for most suicide bombings in three years of
violence, called off attacks inside Israel. In response, Israel will
hold off targeting Hamas leaders but will still go after other
Palestinian militants.
(AP, 12/27/03)

2004 Jan 9, Israeli troops
swept into the West Bank town of Jenin, making arrests and trading
gunfire with militants.
(AP, 1/9/04)

2004 Jan 14, Reem al-Reyashi
(22), Palestinian mother of two, blew herself up at the main
crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, killing at least 4
Israelis and wounding 7 other people.
(AP, 1/14/04)(SFC, 1/15/04, p.A3)

2004 Jan 16, Hamas founder
Ahmed Yassin brushed off warnings by a top Israeli official that he
is "marked for death" and, in a defiant appearance at a Gaza City
mosque, and said his Islamic militant group will continue to attack
Israelis.
(AP, 1/16/04)

2004 Jan 21, Israeli forces
demolished houses in Gaza's Rafah refugee camp for the second
straight day in an anti-militant clampdown that has left 400 people
homeless. A Palestinian woman was killed.
(AP, 1/21/04)(WSJ, 1/22/04, p.A1)

2004 Jan 22, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed a 14-year-old Palestinian boy as he and six other
unarmed teenagers tried to sneak from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
(AP, 1/22/04)

2004 Jan 24, Israeli officials
said they would release over 400 Arab prisoners in a swap with
Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrilla group.
(SSFC, 1/25/04, p.A3)
2004 Jan 24, Israeli troops
shot to death two Palestinian militants who entered an unauthorized
military zone near a security barrier separating Gaza from Israel.
(AP, 1/24/04)

2004 Jan 29, Israel released
435 prisoners in a swap, mediated by Germany, with the Lebanese
guerrilla group Hezbollah in exchange for an Israeli businessman and
the bodies of 3 Israeli soldiers. The businessman was Elchanan
Tannenbaum, a colonel in Israelís reserves, who was kidnapped in
Dubai in 2000 and had knowledge of an advanced Israeli weapons
system.
(AP, 1/29/04)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.99)
2004 Jan 29, A Palestinian
suicide bomber detonated a bag of explosives on a crowded Jerusalem
bus outside Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's residence, killing 10
passengers and wounding 50 bystanders.
(AP, 1/29/04)

2004 Feb 1, Israeli troops
riding jeeps and a tank raided the biblical town of Jericho for the
first time in months, killing one Palestinian militant and forcing
many residents to stay inside at the start of the four-day Muslim
holiday of Eid al-Adha.
(AP, 2/1/04)

2004 Feb 2, PM Ariel Sharon
told his stunned Likud Party he plans to dismantle all Israeli
settlements in the Gaza Strip, his most specific comment yet on
unilateral steps if peace talks fail.
(AP, 2/2/04)
2004 Feb 2, Israel killed a
leader of Islamic Jihad and three other militants in a Gaza raid.
(AP, 2/2/05)

2004 Feb 7, An Israeli
helicopter fired a missile into a car traveling in a crowded Gaza
City street, killing Aziz Mahmoud Shami, a leader of the militant
Islamic Jihad group and a 12-year-old boy on his way to school. The
attack wounded 10 Palestinians, three of them critically.
(AP, 2/7/04)

2004 Feb 26, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed two Palestinians during violent protests against
Israel's West Bank barrier. Two Palestinian gunmen killed an Israeli
soldier at a Gaza Strip crossing before being gunned down by troops.
3 Palestinian boys, aged 12-15, were arrested near Nablus as they
tried to cross a checkpoint with homemade guns.
(AP, 2/26/04)(SSFC, 2/29/04, p.A3)

2004 Feb 29, Israel's Supreme
Court ordered the government to suspend work for one week on a
section of the West Bank security barrier, an attorney said, while
security forces arrested three Palestinian youths who planned an
attack.
(AP, 2/29/04)

2004 Mar 3, Israeli helicopters
fired two missiles at a car carrying Hamas militants on a road
through the Gaza Strip, killing three people.
(AP, 3/3/04)

2004 Mar 6, Palestinian gunmen
and car bombers attacked a major crossing point between the Gaza
Strip and Israel. At least four attackers and two Palestinian
policemen were killed, and no Israeli soldiers were hurt.
(AP, 3/6/04)

2004 Mar 7, Israeli troops
traded heavy gunfire with Palestinians in a raid near Bureij Refugee
Camp, killing 14 Palestinians. Among the dead were 11 militants and
three boys between the ages of 8 and 15, and 81 people were wounded.
(AP, 3/7/04)(AP, 3/8/04)

2004 Mar 9, Israeli forces
backed by tanks and combat helicopters raided the West Bank town of
Jenin, prompting a gun battle that killed a Palestinian woman in her
home.
(AP, 3/9/04)
2004 Mar 9, Groundbreaking
ceremonies were set for a research center on the Israeli-Jordan
border. The Bridging the Rift foundation, launched in 1999, planned
a $30 million environmental research center created with the
assistance of California's Stanford Univ.
(SFC, 2/28/04, p.A8)

2004 Mar 10, In Israel 2 bills
supporting civil marriage were voted down in the parliament.
Thousands of Israel's rabbis have gone on strike, scaling back
wedding and funeral services, to protest the government's
withholding of salaries. The government has not paid salaries to
3,000 rabbis and employees of municipal rabbinates and religious
councils for more than half a year.
(AP, 3/10/04)

2004 Mar 15, Israeli
helicopters attacked two suspected Hamas weapons workshops in Gaza
City and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called off a summit with his
Palestinian counterpart.
(AP, 3/15/04)

2004 Mar 17, Israeli
helicopters fired two missiles into a crowd of suspected gunmen in a
Palestinian refugee camp, killing four people in a stepped-up
campaign to root out militants in the Gaza Strip. 2 teenage boys
were killed in an air strike at the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 3/17/04)(SFC, 3/18/04, p.A2)
2004 Mar 17, Israel's Supreme
Court imposed an open-ended freeze on construction of a 15-mile
section of the country's controversial West Bank separation barrier.
(AP, 3/18/04)

2004 Mar 25, Armed Palestinians
in wetsuits and flippers emerged from the Mediterranean and fired
toward a beachfront Israeli settlement of Tel Katifa in Gaza. Two
attackers were killed and a third was wounded and fled.
(AP, 3/26/04)

2004 Mar 26, A Palestinian
militant was killed when an explosion went off in a van he was
driving in a West Bank refugee camp.
(AP, 3/26/04)

2004 Mar 27, A 7-year-old
Palestinian boy was killed by what the Israeli military said was
haphazard Palestinian gunfire toward an army jeep in a West Bank
refugee camp.
(AP, 3/27/04)

2004 Apr 2, PM Ariel Sharon
revealed the scope of his withdrawal plan, saying Israel will leave
all of the Gaza Strip and dismantle four West Bank settlements.
(AP, 4/2/04)

2004 Apr 3, Israeli troops
arrested 23 wanted Palestinians early in a large-scale raid in the
West Bank city of Nablus. Zohair Arda, a Palestinian gunman, broke
into an Israeli settlement early, killing an Israeli man and
wounding his 12-year-old daughter in their home. Israeli troops
entered the Tulkarem refugee camp overnight and demolished the home
of Arda (18), who was shot dead during the attack.
(AP, 4/3/04)(AP, 4/4/04)

2004 Apr 5, Israeli troops
killed 3 Palestinians near a Gaza settlement.
(WSJ, 4/6/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 5, Alexander Lerner
(90), an eminent cyberneticist and a leading member of the
"refusenik" movement that promoted Jewish emigration from the former
Soviet Union, died in Israel.
(AP, 7/6/04)

2004 Apr 10, A stray bullet
killed an 11-year old Palestinian girl in her kitchen when Israeli
troops fired on her neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 4/10/04)

2004 Apr 12, Israeli troops
exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen near an Israeli settlement in
the Northern Gaza Strip, killing at least three of the assailants.
(AP, 4/12/04)

2004 Apr 14, President Bush
gave PM Ariel Sharon U.S backing for Israeli plans to hold on to
parts of the West Bank. He also ruled out Palestinian refugees
returning to Israel, bringing strong criticism from the
Palestinians.
(AP, 4/15/04)

2004 Apr 15, In Hungary
government leaders and the Israeli president inaugurated this
country's first Holocaust museum in memory of Hungary's 600,000
Holocaust victims.
(AP, 4/15/04)

2004 Apr 17, A Palestinian
suicide bomber blew himself up at an industrial zone between Israel
and Gaza, wounding four Israeli security workers.
(AP, 4/17/04)
2004 Apr 17, An Israeli missile
strike came 4 hours after a suicide bombing and killed Hamas leader
Abdel Aziz Rantisi (56) as he rode in his car in Gaza City. The dead
included Akram Nassar (35) Rantisi's personal bodyguard and his son
Mohammed (27).
(AP, 4/17/04)(SSFC, 4/18/04, p.A1)

2004 Apr 21, In Israel
Mordechai Vanunu walked out of prison after serving 18 years for
spilling Israel's nuclear secrets. He was later indicted on charges
of violating the terms of his release.
(AP, 4/21/04)(AP, 4/21/05)
2004 Apr 21, Israeli troops
killed 9 Palestinians after rocket attacks were fired at Israel for
a 2nd day.
(WSJ, 4/22/04, p.A1)

2004 Apr 23, Israeli troops
killed four Palestinians, one of them armed, in arrest raids in the
West Bank.
(AP, 4/23/04)

2004 Apr 27, Israeli troops
killed two Hamas fugitives and seriously wounded a third in a gun
battle in the West Bank Tulkarem refugee camp.
(AP, 4/27/04)

2004 May 2, In Israel PM
Sharonís Likud Party rejected his proposal to withdraw troops and
settlers from the West Bank. Palestinian militants attacked an
Israeli vehicle in the Gaza Strip, killing 4 children and their
mother. Israeli soldiers killed the 2 attackers.
(AP, 5/2/04)(SFC, 5/3/04, p.A1)

2004 May 5, Israel's state
comptroller said the Housing Ministry has funneled nearly $6.5
million to illegal settlement construction in the West Bank in the
past three years, more than half of it to outposts Israel pledged to
remove.
(AP, 5/5/04)
2004 May 5, Israeli warplanes
fired missiles at a suspected guerrilla hideout in south Lebanon,
shortly after Hezbollah gunners fired on Israeli jets.
(AP, 5/5/04)

2004 May 7, Israeli troops
raided a West Bank village near the town of Tulkarem, surrounding a
house and killing two Palestinian militants.
(AP, 5/7/04)
2004 May 7, Israeli warplanes
struck suspected guerrilla positions in southern Lebanon after
artillery fire killed one Israeli soldier on the border.
(AP, 5/7/04)

2004 May 11, Hamas militants
triumphantly displayed remains of some of the six Israeli soldiers
killed in a roadside bombing in Gaza City, prompting Israeli threats
of punishing reprisals if body parts are not returned. 8
Palestinians were killed and 123 wounded in a battle that pitted
hundreds of gunmen against Israeli troops.
(AP, 5/11/04)

2004 May 12, Israeli troops
launched a massive incursion into a Gaza neighborhood, firing
missiles, demolishing buildings and scouring rooftops, in a bid to
recover the body parts of six soldiers killed the day before by
Palestinian militants. An Israeli helicopter fired a missile in
Gaza's Zeitoun neighborhood, killing at least three Palestinians.
Five Israeli soldiers were killed when Palestinians blew up an
Israeli armored vehicle.
(AP, 5/12/04)(AP, 5/13/04)

2004 May 13, Israeli forces
pulled out of Gaza City after Egyptian intermediaries helped return
body parts of Israeli soldiers. At least 12 Palestinians were killed
as the army left behind a swath of destruction.
(AP, 5/13/04)(SFC, 5/14/04, p.A6)

2004 May 15, More than 100,000
Israelis rallied in favor of a pullout from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 5/15/04)

2004 May 18, Israeli troops
under Operation Rainbow combed the Rafah refugee camp for weapons
and gunmen in the biggest Gaza offensive in years. Twenty
Palestinians were killed, including two teenagers, shot by an
Israeli sniper, as they gathered laundry.
(AP, 5/18/04)(SFC, 5/18/04, p.A3)(SFC, 5/25/04,
p.A5)

2004 May 19, Israeli forces
fired a missile and a tank shell into a large crowd of Palestinians
demonstrating against the invasion of a neighboring refugee camp,
witnesses said. At least 10 Palestinians were killed, all children
and teenagers.
(AP, 5/19/04)

2004 May 20, Palestinian
uprising leader Marwan Barghouti, widely seen as a potential
successor to Yasser Arafat, was convicted of ordering shootings that
killed four Israelis and a Greek monk and supplying funds and arms
for other attacks. Israeli troops pressed their offensive in a Gaza
Strip refugee camp for a third day, killing 8 Palestinians, most of
them armed, and demolishing several buildings. In the West Bank, 3
Palestinians were killed by army fire.
(AP, 5/20/04)

2004 May 21, Israeli troops
pulled back from two neighborhoods in the Rafah refugee camp.
(AP, 5/21/04)

2004 May 22, A 3-year-old
Palestinian girl was shot and killed in the Rafah refugee camp on
the fifth day of Israeli searches and house demolitions. A suicide
bomber blew himself at an Israeli army checkpoint in the West Bank,
wounding five people.
(AP, 5/22/04)

2004 May 25, Israeli troops
abruptly left the Rafah refugee camp without completing a sweep for
arms smuggling tunnels. The weeklong offensive left 45 Palestinians
killed by Israeli fire, including at least 17 gunmen and 12 children
under 16.
(AP, 5/25/04)

2004 May 29, A Palestinian
gunman killed an Israeli officer after opening fire on Israeli
troops conducting a routine raid in the West Bank Balata refugee
camp. An Israeli man was stabbed in the back by a Palestinian in
Jerusalem's Old City.
(AP, 5/29/04)

2004 May 30, An Israeli air
strike killed Wael Nassar (38), a top Hamas commander, along with
his assistant and a bystander in Gaza City.
(SSFC, 5/30/04, p.A9)

2004 Jun 6, Ariel Sharonís
cabinet declared its intent to remove 21 Jewish settlements in the
Gaza strip plus 4 in the West Bank. An Israeli court sentenced
Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti to 5 consecutive life terms and
40 years for his role in attacks that killed 4 Israelis and a Greek
monk.
(AP, 6/6/04)(Econ, 6/12/04, p.45)

2004 Jun 26, Israeli troops
killed 7 Palestinian militants during a raid in Nablus.
(SSFC, 6/27/04, p.A24)
2004 Jun 26, Israeli composer
Naomi Shemer (74) died. Her most famous work was "Jerusalem of
Gold," an emotional ballad describing the country's attachment and
yearning for the city, shortly before Israel captured east Jerusalem
in the 1967 Mideast war.
(AP, 6/26/04)

2004 Jun 27, Palestinian
militants blew up an Israeli army post with explosives in a tunnel
near the Gush Katif settlement in the Gaza Strip. At least one
soldier was killed. A firefight followed that left 2 Palestinians
dead.
(SFC, 6/28/04, p.A6)

2004 Jul 3, Israeli troops shot
and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in the 5th day of an army
operation meant to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israeli
towns by the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/3/04)

2004 Jul 6, Khaled Sallah, an
American-educated computer science professor, and his son were
killed during an arrest raid by Israeli commandos in the Ein Beit
Ilma refugee camp in the West Bank city of Nablus. West Bank and
Gaza fighting left 6 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier dead.
(AP, 7/6/04)(WSJ, 7/7/04, p.A1)
2004 Jul 6, Samir Naqqash (66),
an Israeli author and playwright who wrote almost exclusively in the
Arabic of his native Iraq, died of a heart attack.
(AP, 7/7/04)

2004 Jul 9, The Intíl. Court of
Justice ruled that Israelís separation barrier in the occupied West
Bank violates freedom of movement and should be demolished.
(SFC, 7/10/04, p.A1)

2004 Jul 11, Palestinian
militants set off explosives hidden in shrubs at a Tel Aviv bus
stop, killing a female soldier and seriously wounding at least five
people.
(AP, 7/11/04)

2004 Jul 15, Israel said it
will spend $11.1 million to change completed portions of its West
Bank barrier, building new roads, underpasses and tunnels to try to
ease Palestinian conditions.
(AP, 7/15/04)

2004 Jul 19, An Israeli
aircraft struck a Palestinian militant safe house at a beach camp
near Gaza City, wounding three fighters.
(AP, 7/19/04)
2004 Jul 19, The car of a
Hezbollah militia official exploded as he was leaving his home in
southern Beirut, killing him in an attack the Islamic militant group
said was a "brazen crime" by Israel that would be avenged.
(AP, 7/19/04)

2004 Jul 20, The U.N. General
Assembly called for the structure to be torn down in compliance with
a world court ruling. Israel's construction of its West Bank barrier
continued.
(AP, 7/21/04)

2004 Jul 22, In a Gaza City 2
Palestinians were killed when their car exploded. The Israeli attack
was aimed at a man involved in the slaying of six Israeli soldiers
on May 11.
(AP, 7/23/04)(SFC, 7/24/04, p.A14)

2004 Jul 25, Tens of thousands
of Jewish settlers and their supporters joined hands to form a human
chain along a 55-mile route, serving notice they will fight Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 7/26/04)
2004 Jul 25, Israeli soldiers
in the West Bank shot to death six members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades in a gunbattle in the town of Tulkarem.
(AP, 7/26/04)

2004 Aug 11, A West Bank
assailant detonated a large bomb near a busy Israeli military
checkpoint, killing two Palestinian men and wounding 16 people.
(AP, 8/11/04)

2004 Aug 13, A Palestinian
gunman killed an Israeli security guard near a Jewish West Bank
settlement before being slain himself.
(AP, 8/13/04)

2004 Aug 17, Iran said it would
destroy Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor if the Jewish state were to
attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon approved the construction of 1,000 more homes
in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
(AP, 8/17/04)
2004 Aug 17, Israeli soldiers
shot and killed a 9-year-old Palestinian boy in Nablus as he sat on
the front steps of his home eating a sandwich.
(AP, 8/17/04)

2004 Aug 18, Five Palestinians
were killed in a blast outside the house of a well-known Hamas
militant in Gaza City.
(AP, 8/17/04)

2004 Aug 23, Israel announced
plans for more than 500 new housing units in the West Bank,
following an apparent US policy shift on Jewish settlements that has
infuriated the Palestinians.
(AP, 8/23/04)

2004 Sep 13, An Israeli
helicopter fired a missile at a car in the West Bank town of Jenin,
killing three Al Aqsa men. Israeli police shut down six Palestinian
elections offices in east Jerusalem after seizing voter registration
lists.
(AP, 9/13/04)(WSJ, 9/14/04, p.A1)

2004 Sep 14, Senior Israeli
Cabinet ministers approved the payment of cash advances to Jewish
settlers who will be removed from their homes under Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/14/04)

2004 Sep 20, An Israeli
helicopter blew up a car in Gaza City, killing Khaled Abu Shamiyeh
(30), a Hamas militant who was involved in making and firing rockets
at Israeli towns.
(AP, 9/20/04)

2004 Sep 21, Israeli military
officials said the US will sell them 4,500 smart bombs in a deal
valued as much as $319 million.
(SFC, 9/22/04, p.A15)

2004 Sep 25, An Israeli
helicopter fired two missiles toward a crowd of Palestinians on the
outskirts of a refugee camp, killing a 55-year-old man and wounding
five people.
(SFC, 9/25/04, p.A3)
2004 Sep 25, The Israeli army
charged into a Palestinian refugee camp, killing one person and
tearing down 35 homes.
(AP, 9/25/04)

2004 Sep 26, A car bomb killed
Izz Eldine Subhi Sheik Khalil, an operative of the Palestinian
militant group Hamas, as he turned the ignition. Israeli security
officials acknowledged that the Jewish state was involved.
(AP, 9/26/04)

2004 Sep 26, A senior Hamas
operative was killed in a car bombing outside his house in Damascus,
the first such killing of a leader of the Islamic militant group in
Syria. The hit was claimed by Israeli security officials.
(AP, 9/27/04)

2004 Sep 27, An Israeli
helicopter fired a missile at a Palestinian vehicle traveling in the
southern Gaza Strip, killing one person and wounding three others. 7
Palestinians were killed in several incidents across the West Bank
and Gaza. In Gaza City gunmen kidnapped a CNN TV producer and
released him the next day.
(AP, 9/27/04)(SFC, 9/28/04, p.A8)(WSJ, 9/29/04,
p.A1)

2004 Sep 29, A large force of
Israeli tanks, armored vehicles and troops pushed into northern Gaza
in an overnight raid aimed at militants who have fired rockets
against nearby Israeli towns. The incursion killed at least three
Palestinians.
(AP, 9/29/04)

2004 Sep 30, Israeli troops
pushed deep into the largest Palestinian refugee camp after a
Palestinian rocket killed two preschoolers in an Israeli border
town. 28 Palestinians and three Israelis, including a woman jogging
in a Jewish settlement and two soldiers, were killed in the fighting
in the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 9/30/04)(WSJ, 10/1/04, p.A1)

2004 Oct 1, Israel's security
Cabinet approved a large-scale military operation, dubbed "Days of
Penitence," to stop Palestinian rocket fire. Two Palestinians were
killed and three wounded when an Israeli tank fired a shell in the
Jebaliya refugee camp. 8 Palestinians were killed in the northern
Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/1/04)(SFC, 10/2/04, p.A9)

2004 Oct 2, Israeli troops
killed 10 Palestinian militants, as the military expanded one of its
largest offensives against Palestinian militants in four years of
fighting.
(AP, 10/2/04)(SSFC, 10/3/04, p.A11)

2004 Oct 3, An Israeli aircraft
fired two missiles at a group of Palestinians who launched a
homemade rocket at Israel, killing two militants.
(AP, 10/3/04)

2004 Oct 4, Palestinian
militants fired off two more rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot,
lightly wounding one person, according to rescue workers. Ongoing
violence in northern Gaza killed at least seven Palestinians,
including a teenager.
(AP, 10/4/04)

2004 Oct 5, An Israeli aircraft
launched a missile at a car in Gaza City, killing at least 2
militants and wounding three others. A helicopter strike in Gaza
killed Bashir Al Dabash (42), a senior Islamic Jihad leader, as well
as his bodyguard. Iyman Hams, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl, was
shot and killed by Israeli forces, which soon prompted an
investigation. In 2005 an Israeli military court acquitted an army
captain who was charged with intentionally killing the Palestinian
girl, saying she was already dead when he shot her.
(AP, 10/5/04)(SFC, 10/6/04, p.A17)(SFC, 10/13/04,
p.A14)(AP, 11/16/05)
2004 Oct 5, The US vetoed an
Arab-backed UN Security Council resolution demanding that the Jewish
state immediately end military operations and called the resolution
"lopsided and unbalanced." 11 of 15 voted in favor with 3
abstentions.
(AP, 10/6/04)

2004 Oct 7, Two Palestinian
boys, ages 15 and 14, were killed in an Israeli missile strike.
(AP, 10/7/04)
2004 Oct 7, A car bomb at
Egyptís Taba Hilton killed 34 people on the last day of the Jewish
holiday of Sukkot. The attack was quickly followed by two more car
bombings outside beach-bungalow camps south of Taba. The next day
Israeli officials said they believe al-Qaida was probably behind 3
suicide car bomb attacks targeting Red Sea resorts filled with
Israeli tourists. It was later reported that all 4 bombers who
attacked the resorts escaped on foot minutes before their vehicles
exploded.
(AP, 10/8/04)(SFC, 10/8/04, p.A1)(AP,
10/13/04)(AP, 11/12/10)

2004 Oct 8, Israeli Soldiers
shot and killed a 10-year-old Palestinian girl and three other
Palestinians died in missile strikes during a massive offensive into
the northern Gaza Strip.
(AP, 10/8/04)

2004 Oct 25, Israeli troops
killed 14 Palestinians in a Gaza raid.
(WSJ, 10/26/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 25, Egyptian
authorities said a Palestinian refugee plotted the coordinated
bombings targeting Israeli tourists at resorts in the Sinai and
accidentally killed himself while carrying out the deadliest blast.
Egypt announced it had arrested five of the nine men who bombed Red
Sea resorts almost three weeks ago, saying the attackers used stolen
cars packed with old war-time explosives and a washing-machine
timer.
(AP, 10/25/04)

2004 Nov 1, A Palestinian (16)
blew himself up in a crowded outdoor market in central Tel Aviv,
killing three Israelis and wounding 32. This was the 117th suicide
bombing since Israeli-Palestinian fighting broke out in 2000. 494
Israelis have been killed in the attacks. Israeli troops killed 3
activists in Nablus and a boy (12) throwing stones in Askar.
(AP, 11/1/04)(SFC, 11/2/04, p.A5)

2004 Nov 14, Israel's military
said it will stop allowing Palestinian security forces in the West
Bank to carry weapons in public within the next 24 hours.
(AP, 11/14/04)

2004 Nov 15, Israel offered its
first indication it was reassessing relations with the Palestinians
after Yasser Arafat's death, suggesting it might coordinate a
planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip if the Palestinian Authority
cracks down on militant groups.
(AP, 11/15/04)

2004 Dec 3, Sheikh Hassan
Yousef, a top Hamas leader, said the militant group would accept the
establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
as well as a long-term truce with Israel.
(AP, 12/3/04)(SFC, 12/4/04, p.A3)

2004 Dec 10, Israeli troops
shot and killed a 7-year-old Palestinian girl after militants fired
mortar rounds at a Gaza Strip settlement, injuring four Israelis,
one of them a child.
(AP, 12/10/04)

2004 Dec 12, The Israeli
Cabinet agreed to release scores of Palestinian prisoners as a
gesture to Egypt and the Palestinian leadership ahead of next
month's Palestinian elections. The Israeli army fired three tank
shells at the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip on
Sunday, wounding seven schoolchildren.
(AP, 12/12/04)
2004 Dec 12, Palestinians
detonated a massive bomb under an Israeli military checkpoint
killing at least 5 Israeli soldiers.
(SFC, 12/13/04, p.A6)(AP, 12/12/05)

2004 Dec 14, Egypt and Israel
signed a first joint trade accord with the United States since their
historic peace treaty 25 years ago.
(AP, 12/14/04)
2004 Dec 14, Palestinian leader
Abbas called for an end to attacks on Israel as Israeli troops
destroyed 7 Palestinian houses in Gaza.
(WSJ, 12/15/04, p.A1)

2004 Dec 18, Israeli troops
killed three Palestinians on the second day of an Israeli raid in
the Khan Younis refugee camp in southern Gaza. Israeli forces
withdrew and ended a 2-day raid that left 11 Palestinians dead.
(AP, 12/18/04)(SSFC, 12/19/04, p.A15)

2004 Dec 27, Israel released
159 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to the new Palestinian
leadership.
(AP, 12/27/04)

2004 Dec 28, Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip
suffered a setback after a parliamentary committee failed to approve
a set of guidelines for dealing with Jewish settlers in the
evacuation.
(AP, 12/28/04)

2004 Dec 30, China accused the
US of pressuring Israel not to return armed drone aircraft that were
sent back for upgrades following their purchase in the 1990s.
(WSJ, 12/31/04, p.A1)
2004 Dec 30, In southern Gaza 2
Palestinians were killed in an Israeli missile strike, the 2nd day
of an army raid to stop Palestinian rocket fire from the Khan Younis
refugee camp.
(AP, 12/31/04)

2004 Daniel Gavron authored
ďThe Other Side of Despair: Jews and Arabs in the Promised Land," in
which he called for the creation of a democratic, binational State
of Jerusalem.
(Econ, 3/16/13, p.25)
2004 Israel rejected a Syrian
attempt to create a channel of communications. In response Alon
Liel, a former Israeli ambassador, began talks with Ibrahim
Suleiman, a Syrian in Washington with close ties to Pres. Assad,
under the mediation of a Swiss diplomat.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.55)
2004 Israelís PM Sharon agreed
to allow Druze apple growers in the Golan Heights to trade with
Syria. In 2009 the authorized consignment rose to 8,000 tons.
(Econ, 2/21/09, p.49)